A second and related objective was to facilitate increased trade and investment ties between Asia’s two “emerging powers.”

The Bush administration and Singh’s Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance government have invested enormous energy and political capital in reaching a civilian nuclear treaty. If approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group, this treaty would give India a unique status within the world nuclear regulatory regime, as a state that has developed nuclear weapons in defiance of the nuclear non-proliferation rules established by the great powers, but is nevertheless allowed to purchase advanced civilian nuclear technology.

The Bush administration has touted the nuclear treaty as a means for the US to assist India in becoming a “world power” and described the proposed Indo-US “world strategic partnership” as among the two or three most important alliances that the US will have in coming decades.

Alongside the work to negotiate and bring into force the nuclear treaty, the Bush administration and the UPA government have presided over a major expansion of Indo-US military ties

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