Bill,
It looks like India is back in business...Maybe CACP
can move forward!?
World Bank Approves Loan for India
By DONNA BRYSON
NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- The World Bank has approved a $210 million
loan for India, a sign that international relations were improving after the
country angered the world by conducting nuclear tests last year.
The loan, approved Thursday in Washington, was for a power project
in southern Andhra Pradesh state. It was the first for anything other
than humanitarian needs since the United States led the world in
imposing anti-nuclear economic sanctions after India's underground
nuclear explosions in May.
''Obviously it reflects a general thawing of the relations between India
and the United States,'' said Subhash Agrawal, an analyst who advises
potential foreign investors on politics and the economy in India.
A U.S. administration official had said earlier this week Washington
would drop objections that had blocked the World Bank loan. The official
said on condition of anonymity that India was being rewarded for ensuring
other countries were denied its nuclear expertise and moving to decrease
production of weapons-grade material.
Indian government officials were not available for comment.
Washington also has been gradually easing sanctions on India's rival
Pakistan, which responded to its neighbor's tests with nuclear tests of
its own.
Pakistan and India have fought two wars over the Himalayan state of
Kashmir, which was divided between the two countries 51 years ago
after British rule of the subcontinent ended. The two neighbors fought
a third war over Bangladesh, or what was then East Pakistan.
The international community fears that nuclear weapons could be used
in a fourth conflict and has pressed the two countries to make peace.
An India-Pakistan summit was scheduled for this weekend. |
