Condoleezza Rice

Washington: United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday said Washington was pushing for a regional moratorium on fissile material production and New Delhi had promised to be helpful.

Pushing for the nuclear deal with India at hearings in the Senate and House International Relations Committee, she assured the lawmakers that it would not affect the efforts to stop spread of nuclear weapons, and warned that altering the pact could harm the new partnership with India.

"Don't alter pact"

``I think it (altering the pact) would be a significant setback to our efforts to deepen and broaden our relationship'' with India, she said, cautioning that a failed nuclear deal would ``hand the enemies of this new relationship a great victory. We would slide backward, when we should be striding forward.''

To a query from Democratic Senator and defeated presidential candidate John Kerry, Ms. Rice said the Bush administration was trying to press hard for a fissile material cut-off treaty in South Asia to prevent production of nuclear weapons.

``We would like to see, obviously, in the regional sense in the relationship between India and Pakistan and others, a look at regional moratorium on fissile material production.

"We are trying to get the work done on that ourselves. We've told the Indians they need to be helpful in that. They've promised that they will,'' she said.

The United States had concerns over India's relationship with Iran but would not ask New Delhi to sever its links with Teheran in exchange for civilian nuclear technology.

``The United States has made very clear to India that we have concerns about their relationship with Iran. We have made clear to them that we have concerns about the pipeline.

``We have made clear to them that we have concerns about their initial reservations about bringing Iran before the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear programme,'' Ms. Rice said.

Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, a staunch critic of the Bush administration, raised questions about India's military relationship with Iran. She highlighted reports that Iranian navy ships recently visited an Indian port.

Several other Senators also expressed concerns over India's military links with Iran, including New Delhi's reported training of Iranian naval personnel.

``There have been and probably will be Iranian port calls in a number of countries in a number of countries in the world,'' Ms. Rice said, adding "the assertion we understand that they train Iranian sailors, is not right.'' — PTI, UNI

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail