Final nuclear deal will meet commitments to India: US

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 7: With the US Congress set to put its final stamp of approval to the Indo-US nuclear deal soon, Washington’s pointsperson for nuclear deal negotiations Under Secretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns today sought to address Indian apprehensions by making it clear that he anticipated a “successful” and “supportive” Bill that will be “well within the parameters” of July 18 and March 2 statements.

Underlining that the US Congress had been “supportive in every way” to the Bush Administration on taking the legislative process ahead, he said the final text of the Bill was still to be seen but he was confident that there was nothing which would come in the way of Washington fulfilling all its obligations under the deal.

“The United States intends to meet all its commitments to India (made on July 18 and March 2). This includes those (commitments) of fuel assurances,” he said after holding consultations with Prime Minister’s Special Envoy on the N-deal Shyam Saran, National Security Advisor M K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon.

According to him, the last 18 months was the most difficult phase of operationalising the deal and the next steps would be relatively “less difficult”. Responding to queries on the linkages in the proposed legislation to the Iran nuclear issue, Burns said India was in the “mainstream of international opinion” on this issue and, along with countries like China, Egypt, Russia and Brazil, has sent a “strong message” to Teheran that it cannot have a nuclear weapons programme. “All of us want Iran to gets its right to civil nuclear energy”.

On the current status of the Bill, Burns said the final text was awaited indicating that the reconciliation process was over and that only a formality of procedures remains. He added that the legislation will be cleared from the Congress in the next 36 hours. It’s learnt that the only signature that remained was that of Republican Majority leader in the House John Boehner who wanted to tag on another unrelated piece of legislation to this Bill. This, however, would be sorted out today as Boehner is in favour of the deal. Following this, an up-and-down vote will take place in both chambers of the Congress.

For India, this will be the first legal acceptance of its “unique position” as a country with advanced nuclear technology and nuclear weapons. “We have been telling other (NSG) countries that the time has come for India to be given its rights... we look at this (Bill) as the Liberation Act 2006 for India,” said Burns.

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