Year 2005 saw three countries stand at the crossroads, facing different challenges but tied by the common thread of nuclear diplomacy: India, Iran and China. India sought recognition and acceptance as a nuclear weapons power. Iran challenged the NPT regime to stave off the tag of a nuclear pariah. And China aspired to emerge as a key benefactor — and watchdog — of the existing system. India was best placed of the three but this morning, as the Left and the UPA meet once again, its position couldn’t have been worse.

All three were acting in what realists call “supreme national interest”. All three were engaging with the intricate web of controls that form the core of the global nuclear technology control regime. India developed its programme without flouting any rule despite not being part of the NPT. It declared itself a nuclear weapons power in 1998 and, seven years later, shifts in global politics coupled with giant strides in India’s economic profile brought it within sitting distance of the nuclear high table. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made nine foreign tours that year, met leaders of the United States, Russia, France and South East Asia while leaders from China and Japan came calling. India stitched up a unique nuclear deal with the US that held the key to unlocking the world’s technology denial regime. It did so without having to give up its nuclear weapons.

Iran’s position was just the opposite. Suspicions of its covert nuclear weapons programme drew closer to confirmation. For a country that was a signatory to the NPT, the rise of Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and his unabashed show of nuclear nationalism couldn’t have rung alarm bells louder. Iran soon became the biggest challenge to the well-woven global technology regime — a rebel that needed disciplining. Links with the infamous A.Q. Khan network made Tehran the target of another powerful international discourse — global terrorism. How did Iran react? By 2005, it had set into motion a carefully thought-out diplomatic strategy guided by its key national interest to preserve its nuclear programme.

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