IMPACT OF INDIA-UNITED STATES CIVIL NUCLEAR DEAL ON CHINA-PAKISTAN STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

Abstract

India-United States entered into strategic partnership with visit of United States (U.S.) President Bill Clinton to India in 2000. It was U.S. utmost desire to involve India to contain China’s rising influence in the region through active strategic partnership. Thus determining factor behind India-U.S. strategic partnership was to restrain rising Chinese power. The year of 2005 marked new era of Indo-U.S. strategic partnership, when the United States President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh signed a civil nuclear deal on 18th July 2005. This deal considers destabilizing existing balance of power within South Asia. Consequently both friendly states perceive Indo-U.S. civil nuclear deal as major threat to their security environment. The aim of this paper is to shed light on Pakistan-China’s response to Indo-U.S. civil nuclear deal and following queries broadly discuss in following sections. What are the impacts of India-United States civil nuclear deal on China-Pakistan relations? Did India-U.S. civil nuclear deal was determining factor behind China-Pakistan strategic partnership? How China-Pakistan respond to India-United States civil nuclear deal? Author argued that Indo-U.S. civil nuclear deal posed grave consequences on China-Pakistan security apparatus, and both countries shifted their relations from fairly normal to strategic partnership. Author use balance of Threat theory proposed by Stephen M. Walt to examine level of threat for China-Pakistan security and to explore strategic partnership. Findings of this paper exposed that China-Pakistan paid considerable attention to Indo-U.S. civil nuclear deal and entered in several military and nuclear agreements. Besides China’s nuclear and military assistance to Pakistan, it also shifted its tilt to pro-Pakistan position on Kashmir dispute and saved Pakistan from international isolation in U.N General Assembly by veto of Indo-U.S. sponsored resolutions to declare Pakistani led organizations.