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Wednesday, Aug 31, 2005

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India's nuclear case to come up before United States Congress

Special Correspondent

Under Secretary of State to testify on the importance of India-U.S. agreement Both countries had "very delicate procedures that they have to go through with"

NEW DELHI: With the United States Congress returning from its summer recess next week, the Bush administration is preparing its case for the legislative changes required to keep its end of the nuclear bargain struck with India last month.

On September 8, Under Secretary of State Nicolas Burns will testify before Congress on the importance of the India-U.S. nuclear agreement. "His testimony will be the first presentation, as it were, on the subject, but there are also lots of private meetings" with legislators, U.S. ambassador David Mulford told reporters here on Tuesday. The President has made a case (to provide India with civilian nuclear technology), he said. "But it has to be advanced to Congress and this is an issue that can be a little complicated."

Describing the civilian nuclear initiative agreed upon by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George W. Bush on July 18 as "a very complex process for both of us," Mr. Mulford said both countries had "very delicate, complicated procedures that they have to go through with."

In the case of the U.S., "the issues will require the attention of Congress in order to change the legislation of the U.S. that is conditioned by the nuclear non-proliferation treaty." How this would be addressed legislatively was still under discussion.

On the Indian side too, he said, there were a number of things that had to be done such as implementing its new WMD legislation on export controls, "firewalling" the civilian and military parts of its nuclear programme and placing its civilian nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards.

"They will be working on those according to their own strategy here and one hopes in due course both sides complete their ... commitments and that this is well in place by the time the President visits here."

Bush visit to India

Although the dates were not final, the Ambassador said Mr. Bush would come to Delhi in February 2006. He refused to get drawn into any discussion on the sequencing of these steps, saying, "We're both working on parts of it simultaneously." At the same time, he acknowledged the road ahead could be complicated and suggested the Indian-American community mobilise itself politically. "I don't know how all this will play out because sometimes, getting things through Congress ... some things take a while to get acted upon. We hope the Indian-American community gets active on this... it is a major undertaking... We hope it (will be finished) before President Bush comes but you never can tell with Congress."

The Ambassador denied the nuclear deal had in anyway compromised India. "I certainly don't buy the argument that India has compromised its stand with this agreement. It is a landmark agreement for India. Without civilian nuclear energy, India's growth will be constrained. India is not being asked to do any more than the other nations that have signed the NPT are doing and they are being given more or less the same benefits."

On the U.S. opposition to the Iran-India pipeline, Mr. Mulford said: "We have in a very friendly way notified and reminded the Indian Government that the legislation is there — the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act."

The general intent of ILSA was "to discourage energy development in Iran which benefits Iran in the form of resources that allows it conduct its activities which we find unacceptable in the terrorist and nuclear area," he said. "One can only say that we had that dialogue with the Government here, that's as far as it's gone. The project itself lies in the future, nobody knows at this point whether it is economic or not, and if it is economic, how it would be structured. All of that would determine if and how that would come into play. It's not a question we can answer in advance."

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