The Regional Impacts of India-Us Nuclear Deal

Abstract

The Indian-us nuclear deal brought about a tense scenario to the strategic stability of South Asia in many ways. It intensified the already persistent political albatross between Islamabad and Delhi and Beijing and Delhi in general. The deal enables India to get access to the fissile materials across the world and enrolls it into the nuclear supplier groups lopsidedly, which poses much concern for Pakistan. The diplomatically biased overture of US in the wake of its nuclear wholehearted assistance to Indian pushed Pakistan into psychological isolation, to say the least. Given the fact that the U.S.-India nuclear deal has had a devastating regional impact, it seemed as precipitant to the already existing nuclear arms race among the regional triangle; Pakistan, China and India. Both Pakistan and china showed their loathsome response to the deal and considered it as a conceived blow to the regional strategic stability, for they have their longstanding territorial issues with India. Besides the strategic asymmetry that it procreates in south Asia, the deal also ensures a reassurance effect for the nuclear runner up countries like Iran and North Korea, who are in the way around near to become a nuclear power states. Moreover, US-India nuclear deal also proves lethal to Pakistan-US relation that focuses on the strategic stability of Afghanistan primarily. It spawns many kinds of suspicions in Pakistan’s government toward the US over the later impartial diplomatic approach toward the former. Pakistan in return embarks upon a cordial relation with the Russian to reciprocate the US-India new engagement. Somehow, it gives enough reasons for Pakistan to embolden its defense, economic and political ties with Russian and China in a bid to counterweight Indian influence in the region. The nations of both developing countries India and Pakistan are reeling under multiple problems ranging from abject poverty, poor health facilities, illiteracy, to unemployment and lacking basic life amenities. Ironically enough, the ever-gloomy picture of the people in these countries on one side and their disproportionate defense expenditures on other side forecast destructive consequences in offing as the underdeveloped society is a time bomb and can be turned violently against the state. Hence, the region is in crucial need of human development in terms of education, health, economic resources, industrialization, job security and social security against all odds. The time is ripened up for both India and Pakistan to draw their attention away from arms acquisition toward regional multilateral engagements and should learn the lesson of European countries how could ably they translate their once perennial rivalry into perpetual friendship.