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'A relationship
ofmutualbenefits'
FormerAmbassador
RonenSenSpeaksOnTheRelevance
TIMES NEWSNETWORK
Lucknow: The US is not a Trojan
Horse and the Indo-US ties should be
seen in a long-term perspective, said
India's former ambassadorto the Unit-
ed States, Ronen Sen.
Senwas speaking on the 'Evolution
of India's relations with US' at Luc-
know University on Saturday. He
termed the views expressed by him as
"personal". The1ecture was part of a
series on India's foreign policy or-
ganised by public diplomacy division
of the external affairs ministry.
Sen, who played a key role in the
nuclear treaty with the US, spoke ex-
tensively on the Indo-US civil nuclear
agreement. "The full extent of impli-
cations of the nuclear deal have still
not been realised in our country," said
Sen. The poor communication led to
the real essence getting lost in "tech-
nical jargons and legal arguments",
he added.
Speaking on the relevance of Indo-
US ties, he termed it is a "relationship
of mutual benefits". India's relation-
ship with the US is the "single most
important bilateral relationship
day", said Sen, adding that US is the
largest trading partner,largest source
of foreign investment, biggest desti-
nation of exports of both goods and
,I
I :poJe,
Of Indo-USTies
India's former ambassador to the United States, Ronen Sen during a talk at LU
servicesand growingsourceof high-
technology and dual-use items. It gen-
to- erates more employment at all levels
in the country.
The former ambassador said the
US and India are not just vibrant
democracies, but by far the most di-
- -
,
TOI
! nations back on Washington's radar."
;',
. 1,
II
Q seasoned diplomat.
verse countries in the world in racial,
ethnic, religious, linguistic or any oth-
er aspect in terms of the origin {)ftheir
population. The relations have had
their share of ups and downs, both
during and after the Cold War period,
he said, adding, "but it were the nu-
- _.J
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w,., -
I
clear tests conducted by India and Pak- 1
istan in 1998,which brought the two
The Next Steps in Strategic Part- I
j neJ;ship (NSSP),which came in Janu-
ary, 2004on the initiative of then US
President George Bush and Indian
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee,
was a significant milestone in the di-
rection as it envisaged cooperation in
civil nuclear energy; space, high tech-
nologies and missile defence, said the
"The most significant and most con-
troversial initiative was the India-US I
civil nuclear agreement," he said. The
agreement was fmally approved by the ~
US Congress in September, 2008.It has
far reaching implications. "The USled
the world to a de facto acknowledge-
ment and acceptance of India's pos-
session of nuclear weapons, without
any indication of formally recognis-
ing India as a nuclear weapon state un-
der the Non Proliferation Treaty.
"I am also convinced that nuclear
power should not remain restricted to
government owned enterprises," he
said. The nuclear power sector should
be opened to both domestic and for-
eign private sectors participation, in-
cluding 100%FDI, "if we are serious
about a rapid expansion of nuclear
power generation," he added.
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