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India's PM moves to reassure China

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Wednesday that a milestone accord signed by India and the US to access civilian nuclear technology was not a military alliance aimed against China.

"I want to dispel illusions. We are not ganging up against any country, least of all China. This is not a military alliance or any alliance against any country," Singh told parliament during a four-hour debate on his state visit last month to the US.

In the accord, Singh agreed to separate India's civilian and military nuclear programs, open its facilities to International Atomic Energy Agency scrutiny and work to prevent nuclear proliferation.

Singh argued the deal only aims to boost India's economic growth and added that it would not affect ties between Beijing and New Delhi.

US President George W. Bush said during Singh's visit to Washington that he would ask Congress and allied nations to lift sanctions preventing Indian access to civil nuclear technology as part of a new bilateral partnership.

The US had placed sanctions on India after its second round of nuclear tests in May 1998, but agreed after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, to waive those and other sanctions in return for support in what the US calls a war on terrorism.

India is not a party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). US law bars export of technology that could aid a nuclear program of any country that has not signed the treaty.

In Washington Singh said his country would agree to "assume the same responsibilities and practices" as other leading nations with advanced nuclear technology, and pledged to maintain India's moratorium on nuclear testing.

The accord came after defense ministers from the two countries in June signed a 10-year agreement paving the way for joint weapons production, cooperation on missile defense and possible lifting of US export controls for sensitive military technologies.

Analysts see Washington's move to boost relations with India as part of a strategy to counter the growing influence of China, India's immediate neighbor.

But Singh said Wednesday: "We see new horizons in our relations with China. What we have done with the United States is not at the cost of China or any other country."

Instead, "we have broken new grounds in promoting more closer relations with that great neighbor of ours," he said, referring to a state visit to India by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) in April.

Singh and the Chinese leader signed an agreement in April that set out a roadmap to settle a border dispute without the use of force.

The two countries also set themselves a target of increasing bilateral trade to US$20 billion by 2008 from the current US$14 billion.

Singh said during his talks with the US leadership he underlined improving ties between the world's two most populous nations.

"I had made it quite clear that we we want to remain engaged with China," he said, adding that he sees "new horizons in our economic relations with that country."

Singh, the architect of India's economic reforms, insisted the accord was aimed at increasing cooperation in civilian nuclear technology to meet India's growing energy demands.

He said India's relations with the US are of great importance in helping his country move toward becoming the world's second or third largest economy.
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