NEW DELHI, March 2 The understanding that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh clinched with visiting US President George W. Bush today was only peripherally about renewing civil nuclear energy cooperation.

Today’s agreement on implementing the nuclear deal, unveiled last July, brings the curtains down on the old act of India’s foreign policy. The most successful visit to New Delhi by an American President in the last 60 years marks the debut of India as a great power on the world stage.

Bush has also addressed one of India’s long-standing strategic objectives—parity with China and political differentiation from Pakistan.

By offering India the same access that China has for international nuclear markets and denying it to Pakistan, Bush has in one stroke torn up the long-standing geopolitical premises about this region. And Bush’s emphasis on democracy separates India from both China and Pakistan. President Richard Nixon’s trip to Communist China in 1973 brought Beijing to the centrestage in a readjustment of Cold War correlation of forces. Bush’s visit to India will long be remembered as a bow to India’s rise, at once peaceful and democratic.

It was Henry Kissinger, the architect of Sino-US rapprochement who said the world cannot ignore a billion Chinese people armed with nuclear weapons. Bush is saying the world can no longer ignore a billion people practising democracy, growing at 8 per cent per annum and armed with nuclear weapons.

If American legislation and international law do not recognise India as a nuclear weapon power, Bush is saying it is about time the laws are changed.

With his uncomplicated intellect, Bush has grasped a simple truth about the history of international relations. When a new power is on the rise, it makes sense to integrate it into the global order rather than isolate it.

The conscious effort by Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi to finalise the deal on nuclear separation, inspite of many anxieties, some rational and others not, signals a new level of political confidence even in a government that is buffeted by so many pressures.

Obviously, growing at 8 per cent does some thing to the meekest of politicians. That Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi are today basking in the glory of a great diplomatic triumph has some thing to do with the hard work put in by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and his two advisers Jaswant Singh and Brajesh Mishra, after the May 1998 nuclear tests. If Vajpayee had walked away with the political credit for the nuclear weapons programme initiated by Rajiv Gandhi and nurtured by P V Narasimha Rao, it is now turn of the Congress to stand tall on the foundation laid by the BJP. That is justice, both political and poetic.

While there is enough political credit to go all around for the nuclear gains made by India from the Bush visit, the real challenge for India now lies in recognising that great power status brings with it new responsibilities.

When you are a weak third world country, your only option is to protest against the injustices of the global order. But when a nation becomes a great power, it is among those who maintain stability and order. The buck stops here; and you can’t always blame others for the ills of the world.

As a great power, India would be called upon in the coming days to promote peace and reconciliation in its neighbourhood—especially with Pakistan—and contribute more vigorously to the management of regional and global balance of power.

India should find it easier to make this transition as one of its long-standing gripes against the international system—nuclear discrimination against itself—becomes a historical footnote.

That really is the main purpose of the nuclear accord with Bush. It is about removing past misperceptions and creating a basis for traveling together, and hopefully.

One of the less noticed remarks from the joint press conference by Bush and Manmohan Singh at the press conference today was the shared understanding on regional stability.

India in the past feared other great powers taking interest in the Subcontinent. Today, it has begun to find convergences with the US on promoting regional stability.

The shared values of India and the United States could not help the two nations overcome the strategic differences during the Cold War period. For the first time in six decades there is no longer a contradiction between the common values of religious pluralism and democracy and their respective national interests.

As two of the world’s biggest victims of terrorism, both India and the United States recognise that democracy is the biggest anti-dote to the scourge of terrorism.

While they might differ on the means to promote democracy, India and the United States have reaffirmed, despite doubts in both countries, that they would work together to support fledgling democracies.

What this agreement says is things change, times change...  

US President Bush At Hyderabad House on Thursday • PAST OVER: Sometimes it’s hard to get rid of history, and short-term history shows that the United States and India were divided. We didn’t have much of a relationship. And as a result, there are laws on the books that reflect that. Now the relationship is changing dramatically • HARD SELL: I’ve always said this was going to be a difficult deal for the Prime Minister to sell to his Parliament, but he showed great courage and leadership. And it’s difficult for the American President to sell to our Congress, because some people just don’t want to change and change with the times. But this agreement is in our interests... I’m confident we can sell this to our Congress as in the interest of the United States • FIGHTING TERROR: In the long run, terrorism will be defeated by giving people hope and opportunity, as opposed to systems of government which breed resentment and provide opportunity for these killers to recruit • H1B VISAS: There’s a lot of Indian Americans making important contributions to our country. And we welcome those contributions. I think there needs to be more student exchanges between our countries. I think we ought to expand H1B visas for Indian scientists and engineers and physicists and people in our country