Defense Tech: US-India Nuclear Cooperation: "The Bush Administration is eagerly courting India because ... well, frankly, I don't know. I am told the intellectual argument for the Bush Administration policy is reflected in Ashley Tellis' India as a New Global Power: An Action Agenda for the United States.

Tellis argues the 'change in approach' arose 'from three evolving perceptions within the Bush administration':

First, the administration had come to realize that India would not give up its nuclear weapons so long as various regional adversaries continued to possess comparable capabilities. The fact that the administration initially viewed both of India’s antagonists — Pakistan and China — with considerable suspicion only made senior U.S. officials more sympathetic to New Delhi’s predicament.

Second, the administration was now of the understanding that India’s nuclear weapons did not pose a threat to U.S. security and the United States’ larger geopolitical interests, and could in certain circumstances actually advance American strategic objectives in Asia and beyond"

...

"Third, the administration now appreciated that the range of technological resources associated with weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their delivery systems that were present in India in both the public and private sectors posed a far more serious threat to American safety—were these resources to be leaked, whether deliberately or inadvertently, to hostile regimes or nonstate actors—than New Delhi’s ownership of various nuclear assets."

(Via a DefenseTech.)