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Friday, Dec 08, 2006
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Menon: nuclear deal a stand-alone arrangement

Amit Baruah

We will keep our commitments, says Nicholas Burns

— PHOTO: V. SUDERSHAN

HOPE OF NEW ERA: U.S. Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns with Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon prior to their meeting at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Thursday.

NEW DELHI: Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon on Thursday described the civilian nuclear deal with the United States as a "stand-alone arrangement," which recognised India's unique and responsible role as a player in nuclear affairs.

His comments came at a press conference here with the visiting U.S. Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, who expects Congress to pass "today or tomorrow" a consolidated Bill for civilian nuclear cooperation with India.

Both Mr. Menon and Mr. Burns, who held talks through the day (and were joined by Special Envoy Shyam Saran), chose not to comment on the specifics of the nuclear deal, saying the final text of the Bill was not yet available.

Asked about the Bush administration's position on India reprocessing or sending back spent nuclear fuel, the U.S. official said he could not answer the question in the absence of a final version of the Bill. It would not be wise to guess what the Bill might contain.

Asked whether New Delhi would have been considered "irresponsible" had it voted against the U.S-backed International Atomic Energy Agency resolutions on Iran, Mr. Burns said "nobody" in the executive or legislative arm of the U.S. Government wanted to infringe on India's right to make sovereign decisions.

On the "fallback safeguards" in the Senate version of the Bill, which amount to an additional layer of safeguards for India, Mr. Menon said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had articulated New Delhi's position in Parliament on August 17. "The rest is hypothetical."

He described India's engagement with the U.S. as "unprecedented," but asked a correspondent not to compare this new relationship with the one New Delhi enjoyed with the Soviet Union.

"Please don't compare this with what we have done before. ... The world has changed, we have changed."

Asked whether the U.S. would ensure uninterrupted nuclear fuel supplies, including a strategic reserve, Mr. Burns said it intended to keep the commitments made to India on July 18, 2005, and March 2, 2006.

In colourful language, Mr. Burns said the nuclear deal agreed to by President George W. Bush and Dr. Singh was an act of "liberation" — it put Indian scientists on a par with their counterparts in the U.S. and elsewhere.

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