Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today told the Lok Sabha that the Government was ready to debate the Indo-US civil nuclear deal in Parliament and assured the House that the agreement with the US would be within the July 18 framework.

The PM made this statement after some MPs expressed reservations on the deal during Question Hour and BJP’s VK Malhotra asked Speaker Somnath Chatterjee for a debate on the issue.

Intervening during the question-and-answer on the “Nuclear Energy Deal with US”, Manmohan Singh said: “I wish to assure the House that we will never compromise in any manner which is inconsistent with the provisions of the joint statement of July 18 (2005)”. He said he was ready to make a suo motu statement on the issue as well.

With the Indo-US civilian nuclear coopertation Bill slated to come up for vote on the floor of the US House of Representatives late tonight, MPs like PC Thomas from the Kerala Congress wanted the Government to explain sections in the current US Bill that prohibit India from certain exports.

Replying to this query in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma stated that as there was still no final legislation in the US, the Government would have to wait for a conciliation but assured the member that the final bilateral agreement with US would be “within the defined templates” of the July 18 agreement between the two countries.

When other members wanted to know if this deal required India to change its foreign policy, Sharma again assured the House that this agreement was restricted to civil nuclear energy alone.

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