NEW DELHI: India said on Thursday that the wide margin of approval in the passage of a Bill by the House of Representatives allowing for civilian nuclear cooperation with the United States demonstrated a "broad political consensus" in the U.S.

"We must, nevertheless, await the finalised text of the legislation which will emerge after a Senate vote and the reconciliation of the two Bills, before we are able to comment on its contents," the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

"As has already been stated, there are concerns that we have conveyed to the United States to ensure that the final legislation must not deviate from the parameters of the Indo-U.S. joint statement of July 18, 2005 and the separation plan," the Ministry maintained.

`A major victory'

In a related development, a senior American official described the passage of the Bill in the House of Representatives as a "major victory" for the Bush Administration. Geoff Pyatt, deputy chief of the U.S. Embassy, told presspersons that the nuclear cooperation initiative was a "joint venture" between New Delhi and Washington.

While not "pre-judging the process" that remains to turn the Bill into law, Mr. Pyatt said that nuclear cooperation with India was not a "light switch" that could be turned on or off once President George Bush signed the amendments to the Atomic Energy Act into law.

Mr. Pyatt said he challenged anybody to show that the House Bill was not consistent with the July 18 joint statement. "There has been no moving of the goalposts since then," he claimed, stressing that the criticism in the press was "without foundation."

According to him, the reporting requirements of the Administration to Congress on matters relating to civilian nuclear cooperation was consistent with the separation of powers enshrined in the American Constitution. The Administration sent hundreds of such reports to Congress each year, he pointed out.

This reporting requirement relating to nuclear cooperation with India would not impose any additional burden on New Delhi, Mr. Pyatt maintained. The American official refrained from making any comments on the remarks made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Parliament on Thursday.

Asked why the House Bill was tailored towards India becoming part of the non-proliferation order while the July 18 statement related to civilian nuclear cooperation, Mr. Pyatt stated that New Delhi was a partner and not a "target" as far as the U.S. non-proliferation agenda was concerned.

Mr. Pyatt felt that the "emphatic vote" in the House would help the legislation clear the remaining stages. The U.S. was also optimistic about "further progress" being made in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) meeting in October.

Pointing out that Germany, a key NSG member, had now come out in support of civilian nuclear cooperation with India, the American official said that the India-Brazil-South Africa summit in September was also important since both Brazil and South Africa were part of the NSG.

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