The Hindu : Front Page : Ties with U.S. not dependent on nuclear deal: Mukherjee

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Thursday, Oct 04, 2007
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Ties with U.S. not dependent on nuclear deal: Mukherjee

Washington: India-U.S. bilateral ties will not fall apart if the civilian nuclear deal does not move forward, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said.

“I’m afraid that I do not pin hope only on — this particular arrangement [nuclear deal], because this arrangement we started talking of ... during the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [to the U.S.].”

“But our relationship — you talked of the 60 years relationship. That means from the very beginning, we have a good relationship with the U.S. Sometimes there have been — in every relationship, there may be things that may be don’t work, but nonetheless, we have good relations from day one,” Mr. Mukherjee said on the Charlie Rose Show on PBS.

The U.S., he said, “is the single largest country to us ... the single largest industrial and technical collaboration we had with one country, that is the United States of America.”

“Therefore, this is not the only matter on which our entire relationship depends. Of course, it is an important milestone, but I do not feel that if this will collapse, or if this will fail ... we’ll go back to the negative situation. It’s not like that.”

Mr. Mukherjee brushed aside a notion in the U.S. that the nuclear deal is a complete capitulation to existing American laws that helps India reprocess fuel from a reactor to produce plutonium, which could be used in bombs, and it dilutes strict conditions that Congress has placed.

“... so far as the U.S. laws are concerned, we are fully aware of U.S. laws. But here, I would like to make one point quite clear: When we did not agree to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty, it is not that we disagreed with the ultimate objective of non-proliferation.”

Permanent Council seat

Insisting that the United Nations structure should reflect “contemporary realities,” Mr. Mukherjee said India should get a seat in the Security Council as it had all the “ingredients” to be a permanent member. — PTI

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