Friday, January 13 2006 11:22 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: The Indo-US civilian nuclear energy accord is viewed by Indians as a 'litmus test' of America's seriousness on developing strategic ties and failure to implement the agreement would be 'very damaging' to Washington's vital interests, former US Ambassador to India Robert Blackwill has said.

"We are at a historic intersection at US-India relationship. The Indians see this (the civilian nuclear energy cooperation agreement) as a litmus test of our seriousness with respect to the development of the strategic relationship and they have a long history of suspicions," Blackwill said during an address at the US Chamber of Commerce organised under the aegis of the US India Business Council.

"If this were to fail, I believe this would setback many years of the evolving US-India strategic partnership for many years. It would be very damaging for US' vital interests, perhaps for decades to come," he remarked.

Blackwill is currently the President of Barbour Griffith and Rogers International, one of the top lobbying firms in the United States.

The former envoy said the issue of Pakistan getting a similar arrangement with the US is 'not even a realistic part of the discussion' stressing that 'not a single member' of the Nuclear Suppliers Group supports a similar agreement with Islamabad making the point that the clandestine A.Q Khan network had sunk the chances of Pakistan, if there was any at all.