Almost three years and three months after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President George W Bush made a joint statement on July 18, 2005, and agreed for commerce in civil nuclear energy, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice on Saturday signed the “path-breaking” 123 agreement to end India’s 34-year isolation from peaceful nuclear cooperation with the world.

The signing took place at the Benjamin Franklin Room in US State Department in Washington DC at about 1.30 am IST on Saturday.

Mukherjee, in his remarks before the signing ceremony, said: “Both India and the United States have now completed all of our internal procedures to be able to sign this path-breaking agreement.” Noting that the agreement has been passed by US Congress “without any amendments”, he said that the provisions of the agreement are now “legally binding”.

“The agreement has been passed by the US Congress without any amendments. Its provisions are now legally binding on both sides once the agreement enters into force,” he said.

Underling the “courage in democratic statesmanship, both in New Delhi and in Washington”, Rice — in her opening remarks before signing — said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh “risked his political future for this agreement”.

“Prime Minister Singh literally risked his political future for this agreement, and then remade his Government to gain the support that he needed. And President Bush first saw the potential and the need for transforming the US-India partnership all the way back in 1999 when he was still the Governor of Texas, and he’s made it one of his highest priorities,” the US Secretary of State said.

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