Indian Left parties activists shout slogans and hold placards during a protest against the Indo-US nuclear deal, in New Delhi on July 21.

The future of India’s coalition government and a controversial nuclear deal with the United States were hanging in the balance Monday as parliament opened debate ahead of a key confidence vote.
The Indian government will collapse and early elections will be called if the coalition of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh loses a vote on Tuesday. Experts say the outcome is too close to call, AFP reported.
Singh stirred up anger among his left-wing and communist allies by pushing ahead a nuclear accord with the United States which his government insists is essential to meet the energy needs of India’s fast-growing economy.
Left-wingers, who triggered the vote by withdrawing their support, say the deal ties traditionally non-aligned India too closely with the United States, and would compromise the country’s nuclear weapons program.

Building Confidence
After days of trying to woo even tiny, fence-sitting parties, Singh voiced confidence that his government would survive and see through its last year in office.
“I would like to assure this house... that every single decision, every policy initiative we have taken was taken in fullest confidence that we are doing so in the best interests of our people,“ Singh told the Lok Sabha, or parliament.
“I have no doubt that the people of India will reaffirm their confidence in us.“
The government needs a simple majority of votes, but opposition parties -- including the left and the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- are equally confident they can push the world’s largest democracy into early polls.

On the Edge
If the government loses the vote, elections must be held within six months. Experts say they would likely take place once the monsoon season ends in late September.
The race is so tight, and the stakes so high, that the government has let six MPs serving jail terms out to vote. Meanwhile the opposition has paid for charter flights to bring in ailing lawmakers, including one who has had heart bypass surgery, politicians said.
“The government is today like a patient in an intensive care unit. The first question naturally asked is, ’is he going to survive or not?’“ BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani said as the marathon debate opened.
The communists and BJP are also trying to widen the terms of the debate.
They have been speaking out against rising food and fuel prices -- inflation is currently around 12 percent -- and arguing that hundreds of millions of poor have been left behind by India’s economic boom.
But the core issue is the nuclear deal -- which spans India’s energy security as well as its place in the world.

Advantages
India, which tested nuclear weapons in 1974 and 1998 and refuses to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, is currently barred from buying nuclear technology and fuel.
The deal would allow such purchases but subject India’s civilian nuclear sites to international controls -- aimed at ensuring that any purchases are not diverted for military uses.
Opponents say the deal would compromise India’s position as a beacon of neutrality, and that the requisite UN inspections would limit India’s ability to develop its weapons program and deter its main regional rival Pakistan.
They also argue that there are strings attached -- and doing a deal with Washington would undermine its freedom to buy oil and gas from countries like Iran, or shop for armaments with traditional suppliers like Russia.
“We are not against nuclear energy. We are not against a very close relationship with America. But we would never like India to become party to an agreement which is unequal,“ the BJP’s Advani told parliament.
“This deal makes us a subservient partner. It makes India a junior partner,“ he argued, saying the BJP would renegotiate the accord.

China and Russia on Monday resolved a 40-year-old dispute over their border, in the latest sign of warming relations between the once bitter communist rivals.
Russia will return 174 square kilometers of territory on the northeast border with China, according to the China Daily newspaper, AP reported.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who is on a visit to Beijing, on Monday, signed an agreement with Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi.
“We have just signed the Sino-Russian Borderline Agreement which means we now have 4,300 kilometers of border which are agreed upon,“ the Chinese Foreign Minister told media.
Lavrov said both parties had taken a compromising approach.
“Both sides have kept in mind the long term benefit, building a friendly neighborhood, and peace and development,“ he said.
The border tug-of-war reaches back centuries to the competition for territory as imperial China and Czarist Russia expanded towards each other.
The struggle over border areas resulted in violent clashes in the 1960s and ’70s, when strained Sino-Soviet relations were at their most acrimonious, feeding fears abroad that the conflict could erupt into nuclear war.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was due in Moscow Monday at the start of a three-day visit to discuss buying submarine, air defense systems and jets, the Gazeta daily reported.
“A deal is planned for the purchase of just one submarine as a test“ and discussions are underway for Venezuela to buy Tor-M1 air defense systems, said the report, citing a source at Rosoboron export, Russia’s arms export monopoly, AFP reported.
But the report added that it was more likely that actual deals signed during Chavez’s visit to Russia would involve purchases of An-74 military transport planes and Il-114 regional passenger jets.
“It’s more probable that Chavez will buy the planes that he was interested in during his previous visits,“ Gazeta said.
Officials were also set to continue discussions on building a Kalashnikov factory and a training centre for helicopter pilots in Venezuela, Gazeta added.
A Russian arms industry source earlier told the Interfax news agency that Venezuela was planning to buy 20 Tor-M1 air defense systems and three submarines for a total value of one billion dollars (630 million euros).
Rosoboron export spokesman Vyacheslav Davydenko declined to comment on the reports, saying: “Let’s wait until the contracts are signed. It’s up to the presidents to decide.“

Lawmakers in Nepal on Monday voted in the country’s first post-royal president, Ram Baran Yadav, rejecting a candidate backed by the Maoists, state television said.
Yadav, who was backed by the centrist Nepali Congress party, on 308 out of 590 votes cast in Nepal’s constitutional assembly, AFP reported.
Die-hard republican Ramraja Prasad Singh, the candidate backed by the former rebels, won 282 votes, state television said.
Although the presidency is a largely ceremonial position, the development could delay efforts by the Maoists -- who hold the most assembly seats but not a majority -- to form Nepal’s first republican government.
The selection of a president, who can accept the resignation of caretaker prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala, is seen as a vital step to ending weeks of political deadlock after the assembly ousted unpopular King Gyanendra and ended the 240-year-old monarchy in May.
But the Maoists had threatened to refuse to form a government if their choice for the presidency was not elected, a move that would plunge the new Himalayan republic into more political turmoil.

The United States and Indonesian navies started a five-day joint exercise in East Java province on Monday, Antara news wire reported here.
The exercise so called “Naval Engagement Activity or NEA 2008“, involved 100 personnel from the US Navy and 150 others from the Indonesian Navy, Commander of the Eastern Fleet Command Commodore Slamet Yulistiyono said, Xinhua reported.
Yulistiyono said the US Navy deployed four warships namely USS Tortuga, Ford, Jarret and USNS Safeguard.
“The NEA joint exercise between the Indonesian and the US navies has been conducted for several times and it was proven to benefit both navies,“ he said.
“Most importantly, the joint exercise is aimed to improve soldiers’ professionalism while enhancing bilateral diplomatic ties,“ the officer said.
The US Commander Task Force (CTF) 73, Rear Admiral Nora Tyson said that the US Navy has committed to strengthening the cooperation with the Indonesian Navy and got a lot of benefit from this joint exercise.
The exercise would include Centrixs test aboard the USS Tortuga,health symposium, military observer, US Coast Guard training, diving in Surabaya western sailing route and marines’ training at Karang Tekok, Situbondo of the province, among others.