UNITED STATES-INDIA STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP: SECURITY CONCERNS FOR PAKISTAN

Abstract

United States-India strategic partnership became a highly important and controversial subject of discussions among various academic and political circles in the world from the very first days of its inception. There have been intense debates on this partnership regarding its various aspects at various levels. At the international level, it provoked non-proliferation concerns while at regional level, it triggered the debate about its implications on China and emergence of India as an Asian power; a counterweight to China. There has hardly appeared a significant account of its implications for Pakistan, which is not only by itself an important regional actor attempting to maintain a strategic equilibrium with India, but has close strategic cooperation with China affecting regional balance of power. More significantly, Pakistan perceives itself as the most directly affected country by the India-U.S. strategic partnership. The strategic partnership entailing nuclear deal and space cooperation raised huge concerns regarding non-proliferation at international level. Discussing its implications for non-proliferation, the Carnegie Endowment expert, Mark Hibbs said, ―The landmark U.S.-India nuclear deal damaged the global nonproliferation regime and has exacerbated nuclear tensions in South Asia.‖ (Hibbs 2010) A report by Council on Foreign Relations says that, ―the deal fundamentally reverses half a century of U.S. nonproliferation efforts, undermines attempts to prevent states like Iran and North Korea from acquiring nuclear weapons, and potentially contributes to a nuclear arms race in Asia.‖ (Jayshree Bajoria and Esther Pan 2010) Sharron Squassoni writes in a CRS report on India-US nuclear cooperation that, ―There are no measures in this global partnership to restrain India‘s nuclear weapons program.‖ (Squassoni 2005) Henry Sokolski of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center says, ―We are going to be sending, or allowing others to send,