In deciding to vote in favour of the European resolution at the International Atomic Energy Agency on Saturday and demanding that Iran comply with its nuclear obligations, the government has signaled a new maturity in India’s foreign policy. In one stroke, India has told the world that it will follow its own interests in deciding on global issues. India is saying it is not a mere protestor in the international debates on non-proliferation; that it means what it says when claiming to be a responsible nuclear weapon power. On the multilateral front, India’s vote will now have to be earned. It cannot be expected to come automatically as part of third world “groupthink”. All to the good.Even as the government receives bouquets on the decision from North America and Europe, it will also face inevitable brickbats, especially from the Left which believes independent foreign policy is about opposing the US on every issue and from many others who continue to long for the comforts of non-aligned platitudes. India must also brace itself for negative reaction from Tehran that could include threats to cut off energy cooperation. Making choices, however, is part of growing up on the world stage. Having made its bed, the government must avoid the temptation to run away from it. The technical mumbo-jumbo from the ministry of external affairs that few understand, will not save the government from political criticism. But the UPA government has very little to be apologetic about.That no one in the 35-member IAEA board of governors, barring Venezuela under the maverick leadership of Hugo Chavez, has voted with Iran suggests how isolated Tehran is on the nuclear issue. There was no reason for India to condone Iran’s cheating on its nuclear obligations; nor is there any shame in not jeopardising its own interest in nuclear cooperation with the international community for the sake of defending a regime that has been caught red-handed cheating on its nuclear obligations. Having asserted its own interests, India must now break out of the false framing of the current debate as a choice between Washington and Tehran. In explaining its vote at Vienna, the government has underlined the growing tension in the world today between the right to develop nuclear energy and the importance of preventing non-proliferation. It is only by addressing this issue sensibly, and making a genuine effort to reconcile the divergent nuclear imperatives, that the government can construct a more generic policy on non-proliferation for the future.
