When President Bush makes his trip to India next month, he will be visiting a country that, like China, has begun to gear its international strategy to its energy needs. That is one of the biggest diplomatic challenges facing the US.

India wants Bush to wring approval from Congress for a misbegotten pact in which America would help meet India’s energy requirements through civilian nuclear cooperation. India recently bowed to American pressure and cast its vote at the IAEA to refer Iran’s suspected nuclear programme to the UN Security Council. That was a victory for Bush, and India did the right thing, but the deal it wants to make with the US is a bad one. It would allow India to make an end run around the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty’s basic bargain, which rewards countries willing to renounce nuclear weapons with the opportunity to import sensitive nuclear technology to help meet their energy needs.

In trying to give India a special exemption, Bush is threatening the NPT’s carrot-and-stick approach, which for more than 35 years has dissuaded countries that are capable

of building nuclear arms from doing so. There is no diplomatic quick fix in this energy-hungry world. Even if India shunned Iran, it would still have to turn to other petroleum suppliers that US wants to isolate.