The India Lobby and the Nuclear Agreement with India

In July 2005, reversing decades of U.S. nuclear nonproliferation policy, President George W. Bush announced a commitment to attaining 'full civilian nuclear energy cooperation and trade with India.' In November 2006, Congress passed the Henry J. Hyde United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy' Cooperation Act and, in October 2008, approved the necessary follow-on legislation, to formally permit civilian nuclear trade with India. The nuclear agreement with India was a major U.S. foreign policy initiative, and Indian Americans strongly lobbied Congress to approve this agreement. To some, this advocacy effort heralded the emergence of Indian Americans as a leading ethnic lobby that could substantially influence future U.S. foreign policy. Adapted from the source document.