The Indo-US civilian nuclear treaty has hailed the treaty as the cornerstone of an Indo-US strategic and global partnership. The senators urged New Delhi to conclude mandatory agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Suppliers Group no later than the beginning of June, so as to enable the US Congress to ratify the Indo-US nuclear treaty by July. After then, they claimed, the US presidential election campaign will effectively paralyze congressional legislative action.

The UFA government has encountered many obstacles in negotiating a safeguard agreement with the IAEA. For months, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front, which has been sustaining the UPA government in power since May 2004, opposed the opening of talks with the IAEA. And while last November the Stalinists did finally allow the UPA government to initiate negotiations with the IAEA, they continue to say that they will bring down the government should it implement the treaty, because the treaty would entangle India in Washington's predatory foreign policy.

Once a deal with the IAEA is reached India will still have to negotiate a waiver from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), before it will be allowed to partake in nuclear trade. Allowing India to engage in nuclear trade would give it special status within the world nuclear regulatory regime as a state that obtained nuclear weapons in defiance of the five recognized nuclear powers and continues to refuse to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The US senators warned that if the Indo-US civil nuclear deal is not consummated, it will impact negatively on the Indo-US relations. Gates declared that the civilian nuclear cooperation deal serves the best interests of both countries and would have positive global consequences.

From the standpoint of US imperialism, the positive global consequences of the Indo-US nuclear deal would be:
1. The forging of a strategic relationship with India, through which the US would be well-placed to transform India into a junior partner and ensnare the country in its  imperialist geo-political designs  in Asia,  including domination of Mid-East oil and gas reserves.

2. Recruiting India into an anti-Iran alliance.

3. Checkmating Russia in Central Asia.

4. Combating China’s growing influence.

5. It would provide de facto recognition of India as nuclear-weapons state and allow India to concentrate more of the resources of its indigenous nuclear program on developing its nuclear arsenal.

As for the US’s plans to use the deal to bring India into its geo-political orbit, the Indian government and much of India’s geo-political-military establishment harbors the belief, or at least the hope, that India will be able to offset US pressure by simultaneously pursuing close relations with China and Russia, as well as the European Union and Japan.

In any event, as the mounting US pressure for the nuclear deal demonstrates. India is in lockstep with its integration into the world capitalist economy and resulting rise is increasingly being drawn into the struggle amongst the great powers for resources, markets, and military-strategic advantage.