India and US - III

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The man behind the deal
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<b>Philip Zelikow </b>may go down in history for a statement he made at a press briefing where he was described only as “State Department Official Number One”. It was at this March 2005 meeting that he declared the US had set itself a foreign policy goal of helping “India become a major world power in the 21st century”.


<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In New Delhi he should be known as one of the fathers of the Indo-US civilian nuclear cooperation agreement.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->As Tellis, now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, later explained, “I told Zelikow that the US had three choices when it came to the India relationship: do nothing; keep the relationship where it was; or go for something big.”

The relationship was at a crossroads. Zelikow recommended to Rice that the US go for the third option. In other words, the US should throw its diplomatic might into persuading the world to modify the non-proliferation regime. He had chosen the road never travelled before and that made all the difference.

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