Now that the IAEA and the NSG have acted, we urge you to move ahead. The negotiations that produced the agreement were long and complex, and both sides have accepted provisions they might have preferred to write differently. In light of the long and difficult negotiations, we would respectfully ask that no further attempts be made to change the substance of the agreement. The benefit of forging a real strategic partnership with India is huge, and if we move ahead now, we should be able to strengthen global cooperation against onward proliferation of nuclear weapons. This is the time to move forward, decisively and fast.

This agreement is too important to be defeated by letting the clock run out.

Sincerely yours,

• WALTER ANDERSEN

Associate Director, South Asia Studies

School of Advanced International Studies

Johns Hopkins University

• MARSHALL BOUTON

President, Chicago Council on

Global Affairs

• RICHARD CELESTE

Former US Ambassador to India

• STEPHEN P. COHEN

Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies

The Brookings Institution

• AINSLEE EMBREE

Professor Emeritus of History

Columbia University

• SELIG HARRISON

Director, Asia Program

Center for International Policy

• ROBERT M. HATHAWAY

Director, Asia Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

• KARL F. INDERFURTH

Director, International Affairs

Program Elliott School of International Affairs George Washington University

• ROBERT KAGAN

Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

• DENNIS KUX

Senior Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center

• JOHN B. RITCH

... contd.