Rice gets Berman to back off, n-deal set to clear the House

As for Berman, he agreed after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called him last evening and added yet another twist today by claiming she had assured him that US will make it the “highest priority” at the November meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group to obtain a ban on export of enrichment and reprocessing technology to countries like India that have not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

“I agreed to this request because Secretary of State Rice made a personal commitment to me that — in a change of policy — the United States will make its highest priority at the November meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) the achievement of a decision to prohibit the export of enrichment and reprocessing equipment and technology to states that are not signatories of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). This would be consistent with the intent of Congress as expressed in the Hyde Act to further restrict international transfers of this sensitive technology,” he said to his colleagues, according to his office.

The right to reprocess, it may be noted, is enshrined in the 123 agreement and US has committed to negotiate an agreement in future for trade in ENR technologies. However, Washington did move a criteria-based note in the NSG in May this year for trading in these technologies where the first condition was that a country ought to have signed the NPT. There is still no consensus in the NSG on this note and what Rice has told Berman is that US will push for a consensus on this. India will hope that France and Russia will not allow the NPT criteria to be accepted.

As head of the House International Relations Committee, Berman complicated matters last afternoon by introducing his own resolution (HR 7061) that overrode the resolution placed on Wednesday in the House (HR 7035) which was the same as the one the Senate Foreign Relations Committee had cleared. HR 7061 made two key changes relating to future arrangement between India and US on trade in enrichment and reprocessing technology.

He had inserted that the US President had to keep the appropriate Congressional committees fully and currently informed of any discussions or negotiations related to any subsequent arrangement concerning reprocessing with India. Second, that the President would consult the two committees at least 15 days before even starting informal negotiations with India.

This led to further confusion and even as Bush was meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last evening at White House and later hosted him to an exclusive dinner at the old family room, Rice spoke to Berman urging him to withdraw his resolution. Soon after that Berman withdrew and tabled a fresh resolution identical to one cleared by the SFRC (HR 7081), which is to be put to vote this afternoon. It was seventh on the list.

Senator Harry Reid, meanwhile, spoke in the Senate asking it to meet next week too for considering important Bills that included the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement. So, in sum, the PM could hope that before he lands in New Delhi, the agreement would have been cleared with Bush expected to issue a signing statement that would address concerns emerging from the declaration of policy section of the Bill which is not binding on the US President.

Later this evening, PM told the UNGA that India’s impeccable non-proliferation record has been vindicated through this agreement and the exemption from the NSG. “I reiterate India’s proposal for Nuclear Weapons Convention prohibiting development, production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons and providing for their complete elimination.”