NEW DELHI: Days after a landmark civilian nuclear deal was approved by the United States Congress, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held talks in the Indian capital yesterday, but could not sign the agreement due to administrative hitches.
Addressing a joint press briefing with Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Rice said, “the 123 Agreement is done. ...We don’t have any open issues.” Only the “administrative matter” of signing remained, she added.
The deal allowing India access to US nuclear fuel, reactors and technology was effectively sealed by the US Congress when the Senate passed it on Wednesday.
It overturned a three-decade ban on nuclear trade with India imposed after it first tested nuclear weapons in 1974. US officials had hoped Rice could sign the accord during her whirlwind one-day trip to India celebrating the pact, which was a top foreign policy priority of President Bush’s second term.
But Rice suggested administrative procedures on Capitol Hill had delayed the enabling legislation from getting to Bush for him to sign.
She assured reporters it would be signed “soon” and that there were no last-minute substantive differences blocking completion of what admittedly had been, at times, a very “tough” process of negotiations.
“I think you know this has been a busy time for our legislative branch over the last couple of days,” she added, referring to Capitol Hill’s passage of a $700 billion bank bailout plan to address a major financial crisis.
Supporters talk of how the nuclear pact brings two of the world’s largest democracies closer, while opening up the Indian nuclear energy market worth billions of dollars. But critics say the accord does grave damage to global efforts to contain the spread of nuclear weapons, by letting India import nuclear fuel and technology even though it has tested nuclear weapons and has never signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The signing snag was the latest in a series of twists and turns that began three years ago when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Bush agreed in principle to the deal.
The Bush administration then pushed hard to get needed approvals for the controversial pact from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the US Congress. The deal endured a rocky road in India as well. The communists withdrew their support from the Singh government in July over the pact, condemned it as India’s “surrender” to Washington.
Mukherjee yesterday said he hoped the nuclear deal would be signed shortly. But he was noncommittal when asked what he thought of a promise Rice had made to US lawmakers to push for the Nuclear Suppliers Group to prohibit the transfer of enrichment and reprocessing technology that can be used to make weapons, to states that haven’t signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty — like India.
