U.S. May Help India With Nuclear Plant Despite Rift on Iran
By JOEL BRINKLEY
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 16 - The United States may help India build one or more nuclear power plants, even as the Bush administration objects to India's proposal to construct a natural gas pipeline from Iran, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her aides said Wednesday during a visit with Indian government leaders in New Delhi.
Ms. Rice said the United States needed to do what it could to help India cope with its growing energy needs.
The United States maintains a trade embargo against Iran and is now engaged with Europe and the United Nations in an effort to persuade Iran to end what it suspects is a nuclear weapons program.
"We do have our concerns," Ms Rice said at a joint news conference with Natwar Singh, the Indian foreign minister. "And we have communicated our concerns to the Indian government about gas pipeline cooperation between India and Iran." But she added, "We do need to look at the broader question of how India meets its energy needs."
The pipeline idea was first proposed more than 10 years ago. The pipeline would run through Pakistan, but given the tensions between India and Pakistan, the idea has not advanced until recently, when India and Pakistan began looking for ways to cooperate. The $4.5 billion pipeline plan has risen as one likely project.
India has long courted relations with Iran, despite American objections.
"We have no problems of any kind with Iran," Mr. Singh said, standing beside Ms. Rice. "We need a lot of new additions to our sources of energy, and so the pipeline is important."
He added that "the dispute is rather hypothetical at this stage." He did acknowledge that India may have to rethink its pipeline plan, should the United Nations impose sanctions on Iran because of its nuclear program.
The pipeline disagreement stood out as the only significant snag in a day of meetings that both sides went out of their way to describe as warm and amicable. India is growing to be an ever-more important political and economic power. The Bush administration has worked hard to improve relations, for their own sake and as a balance to the administration's need to grow closer to Pakistan, an important ally in the campaign against terrorism.
Both India and Pakistan have nuclear weapons, but the administration does not chastise either of them for that.
A year ago, President Bush announced a plan for greater cooperation with India, including possible aid for civilian nuclear power plants. That topic came up again on Wednesday.
Ms. Rice and Mr. Singh both said they had discussed the possible sale of F-16 fighter jets to India, though they said no decisions had been made. Ms. Rice said she expected to have similar discussions with Pakistan, which has an aging fleet of F-16's. For the last three years, the United States has sold Pakistan spare parts for those planes, but now Pakistan wants to replace them.
