The Hindu : National : What did the U.S. spokesperson say?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 17, 2007
ePaper

National

National

What did the U.S. spokesperson say?

Sandeep Dikshit

Storm over McCormack’s statement

NEW DELHI: What exactly did U.S. State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack say that led to a furore in Parliament on Thursday? Did he say that the deal “will be terminated” if India conducted a nuclear test? Or did he say the proposed 123 agreement had provisions that in the event of a nuclear test, all nuclear cooperation would be terminated?

Mr. McCormack’s statement on the testing issue is not mentioned in the U.S. State Department’s transcript of the press conference of August 15. Speaking in the Lok Sabha, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee admitted that there was no “authentic version of this statement” and he was clarifying the Government’s stand only because members had raised this matter on the basis of media reports.

Diplomatic sources contacted by The Hindu too would not substantiate the authenticity of the statement. On the basis of media reports, they felt Mr. McCormack was approached at the end of the news conference and probably gave out th e two sentences that shook Parliament. Their subsequent interpretation by the media led to further confusion among strategic analysts and raised tempers of Parliamentarians, mainly from the Opposition and the Left parties.

His original statement in all probability was: “The proposed 123 agreement has provisions in it that in the event of a nuclear test by India, then all nuclear cooperation is terminated.” But was Mr. McCormack correct if he mentioned the word testing? Probably not. As Mr. Mukherjee put it, “Nowhere – I repeat, nowhere – in the bilateral agreement is testing mentioned.”

An examination of Article 14 of the agreement shows Mr. Mukherjee is technically correct. The word testing is not to be found in any of the nine sub-clauses dealing with termination and cessation of civil nuclear cooperation. At the same time, the wording leaves none in doubt that the condition that may lead to termination of the agreement is nuclear testing. Either way, if the U.S. State Department spokesperson did mention the word testing, he either went out or was encouraged to step out of the text of the agreement.

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

National