The Impact of US-Indian Nuclear Cooperation on India-Iran Relations

The Indian-American strategic relations have increased dramatically despite the ups and downs in the Trump office term, since both the United States and India have shared interests in balancing China's power in Asia, and on the other hand the United States assesses India's capacity to be significant as a growing market and a rival against China. The United States is trying to raise India as a counterweight against China and helping India to build its political supremacy in the region and support its leadership role in the Third World especially in Asia is a part of this plan. Nuclear cooperation between the United States and India is a milestone in the relationship between the two countries. Indian and American nuclear exchanges without the need to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) allowed India to engage in non-military trade. In this regard, since the United States and Iran disagree over Iran's nuclear activities, US-Indian nuclear cooperation can affect the national security of Iran in the region and increase international pressure on Iran for its nuclear program.

Given the theoretical nature of this study, it employs a qualitative-descriptive-analytic approach. In qualitative research design, data from historical, descriptive and empirical research are used. The data needed in this study are collected through library references, documents, and various internet websites and resources.

The history of official, diplomatic, and administrative relations between India and the United States dates back to 1947 when Indian gained independence. In 1960, some Indian political exiles entered the United States, and in 1913 a group of Indian patriots led by Lala Hardale established the first powerful Indian party to win American support in California. During the Cold War, the relations between the two countries affected by the East-West rigid blocking and India's close proximity to the Soviet Union on the one hand, and India's accession to the head of the anti-colonial movements and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), on the other hand, left no opportunity for the two countries to get closer to each other (Arghavani Pirsalami & Esmaeili, 2017: 18). Perhaps when, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Indian strategic circles had advised the government that "New Delhi has already fallen on the left side of history, it's now time to sleep on the right side of history," and they point out the necessity of developing India's relations with the United States, no one thought that the Delhi and Washington relations would get so close. With George Bush coming to power, a positive attitude was adopted toward the relationship with India and the emphasis on India's democracy as a shared value between the two countries provided the grounds for the expansion of trade relations with India. Bush emphasized that disputed issues like CTBT would not hinder the deepening of Indian-American relations (Vaezie & Mozhirzadeh, 2015: 139). With Barack Obama's arrival at the White House in 2009, many experts expected the growing India-US relationship to continue based on a logical trend. In July of the same year, Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, visited India, in which several bilateral cooperation agreements were signed between India and the United States. Clinton also explained key components of India-US cooperation in five areas, including strategic cooperation, commercial, economic, and agricultural partnerships, energy and climate change cooperation, education, and scientific technology development partnerships (Aqa'i and Aghdaei, 2014: 317). When announcing his new policy on August 21, 2017, Tramp called India "the US key security and economic partner," and stated that the development of a strategic partnership with India is "an important part of the US strategy in South Asia." The Indian-US nuclear agreement was signed on July 18, 2005, in spite of its non-compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Under this agreement, India could buy nuclear fuel from the United States and it was allowed to create its strategic nuclear fuel reserves to be used in the event of disruptions in the fuel supply (Mirza & Sadiq, 2008: 3). The agreement was finalized in October 2008, and its realization was important for India in the sense that while removing India from nuclear isolation, it made it possible to provide fuel and nuclear facilities for India and, as a result, India could have reduced its dependence on Persian Gulf energy resources. Besides, while India was not recognized as a nuclear power according to this statement, it was called a responsible state having nuclear weapons (Blank, 2007: 12). Most US policymakers believe that China is a power threatening the US interests in Eastern and Southern Asia. Planning to establish extensive bilateral and multilateral relations with countries in the region, such as India is one of the US policies and strategies to put pressure China and halt its power in the region. In fact, there is a kind of reciprocal relationship between US policies and the Indian nuclear issue. In pursuit of its political and diplomatic goals, the United States takes advantage of the force of nuclear cooperation agreements and, on the contrary, if India satisfies the US demands it will respond positively to the Indian nuclear demands. India's vote against Iran at the IAEA and India's support for the Iranian opposition concerning human rights examples of India’s attempts to support the US demands. The main purpose of the United States behind the US-Indian peace agreement is to turn India into a regional military force to realize American interests, which also affects the security interests of other countries in the region (Shafiei and Faraji-Nasiri, 2014: 21). Accordingly, it can be suggested the cooperation of the US and India in the nuclear field, while tensioning the security of the East of Iran, will make the South Asian region more international and, consequently, intensify the arms race in the region. In its energy-related relations, the United States has pushed Indian companies to refrain from cooperating with Iran, and forcing India to withdraw from the IPI (India-Pakistan-Iran) Pipeline is an example. If the United States leaves the nuclear treaty with Iran, it is anticipated that Saudi Arabia and Israel will step up their efforts to fight Iran's influence in the region. Under such circumstances, New Delhi may restrict its investment in Chabahar, or otherwise face the threats of Washington, Tel Aviv, and Riyadh (Younus, 2018: 2-3). New Delhi's growing relationship with the United States, Israel, and Saudi Arabia has also led Iran to react to New Delhi's policy change; Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, during his trip to Pakistan in March 2018, invited Pakistan to participate in the development of the Chabahar Free Zone and expressed the desire to connect Gwadar and Chabahar.

The Indian-American relations that began with the independence of India in 1947 have gone through many ups and downs during the Cold War, and after that until the last years of the office term of President Bill Clinton in the United States. However, these relationships improved dramatically in the late Clinton’s term in office, especially from Bush presidency and promoted to the level of strategic relations. However, after the end of the Bush presidency, and as American Democrats came to power in the United States, many Indian and American authorities and experts accused Obama of abandoning Indian-American relations and his disregard for its promotion. The US-Indian nuclear treaty is a milestone in the relationship between the two countries, and after more than 30 years it brought their relations into a new stage of strategic cooperation. This treaty involves the two countries' cooperation in confronting the rise of China as an emerging Asian power that can transform the power equations in Asia, the confrontation with the spread of terrorism in Asia as a common ground for the security threats in the two countries in the post-9/11 period, giving priority to India to serve US interests in South Asia, as well as the emergence of economic opportunities for both sides. The development process China's power at the global arena is such that US presidents are required to determine their strategy for dealing with Beijing. Meanwhile, Washington aims to build a coalition with India in order to maintain and meet its goals and interests in Asia and seeks to control China's regional influence. The US-Indian partnership on the nuclear issue has affected Iran as the South Asian neighbor with its geopolitical and geostrategic characteristics. India's acquisition of a nuclear deal with the United States has been at the expense of reducing the level of relations with Iran. India's vote against Iran in the nuclear issue, its reluctance to operationalize the IPI pipeline, and India’s failure to repay oil debts to Iran are some consequences of the US-Indian partnership.