NEW DELHI, 9 December 2006 — US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns yesterday said the US was “very pleased” with the final civil nuclear legislation and stressed that the nuclear waiver to be granted to India will be a permanent one, not subject to annual reviews.
“The wavier (from the existing rules that forbid export of nuclear technology to countries which have not signed the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty) to India is going to be a permanent one,” Burns told reporters.
“Under the legislation, the waiver authority given to the US administration is permanent and is not going to be reviewed annually,” Burns stressed, responding to anxieties here that the US was trying to make the waiver subject to annual certification by the US president that India had not conducted any nuclear test.
The final legislation, which emerged after a reconciliation conference late Thursday, has replaced the provision for annual presidential certification as contained in the Senate provision of the bill with just an assessment by the president that India was compliant with its nonproliferation obligations.
It has also smoothed out another irritant — a linkage to the Iranian nuclear issue — by putting it in the nonbinding section that enjoins upon the administration to submit its assessment to Congress that India was cooperating with the US on the issue.
The bill asks the administration to give a “description and assessment of specific measures that India has taken to fully and actively participate in the US and international efforts to dissuade, isolate and, if necessary, sanction and contain Iran for its efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction.”
Burns described the final nuclear legislation, which was to be voted upon by the two chambers of the US Congress later yesterday, as a “100 percent good deal” and hoped that both governments would welcome it.
“This is a big breakthrough. It’s a symbol of this new strategic relationship between India and the US,” Burns said.
Burns is in India on a four-day visit to discuss with Indian officials the bilateral 123 civil nuclear agreement and other aspects of India-US ties.
“India has been kept outside. As a great power and a friend of the US, India has to be brought in. They did the right thing to break with three decades of conventional wisdom,” Burns said, underlining that the nuclear legislation will enable New Delhi to access civil nuclear technology and fuel after a long ban.
