The envoy said the commitments in the agreement are “Presidential commitments” and will be “faithfully honoured”.

When referred to the riders sought to be attached to the nuclear deal, Mulford said, “If you have any specific questions, you should refer to the 123 agreement.”

On the reprocessing issue, Mulford said the 123 agreement has a provision granting upfront reprocessing right to India. “It, however, involves certain procedures and timetable,” he added, referring to the requirement of setting up a dedicated reprocessing facility by India within a year.

On the enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) technology, the Ambassador said that the US laws prohibit such transfers to any country, not just India.

“This law may be amended someday but right now it is prohibited,” he noted.

“But India doesn’t need it (enrichment and reprocessing technology). It has its own expertise,” he said.

Pointing out that the US is in favour of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) putting a prohibition on transfer of ENR globally, he said there is a move afoot in the 45-nation grouping, but no consensus on this has been achieved so far.

“This is a very good day. It’s historic for both countries. It’s a major agreement that will change the relationship between the world’s major democracies,” the US envoy said, and lauded the vision of both US President George W Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for this path-breaking nuclear entente between the two countries.

He underlined that the US Congress, despite facing the worst financial crisis in the past 75 years, found time to pass the legislation and voted is India’s favour. “The US President, in the midst of a political maelstrom and financial crisis, found time to push the deal through the Congress,” Mulford said.

... contd.