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Condoleezza Rice bats for India

Berman changed mind after she made a “personal commitment”

Condoleezza Rice

New Delhi/New York: The 123 agreement is expected to be inked during U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s daylong visit to New Delhi on October 3.

Ms. Rice, whose visit has been pending for over a year mainly because of uncertainty over the nuclear deal, will hold talks with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on bilateral and regional issues. The two leaders will sign the nuclear agreement if it gets the expected clearance from the U.S. Congress by then, sources said here.

Ms. Rice has been leading the push in getting the deal approved by the U.S. Congress and has been working with key lawmakers. “For the United States, passage of this legislation will clear the way to deepen the strategic relationship with India,” she said in a letter to House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

She also maintained that the agreement would open significant opportunities for American firms, help meet India’s surging energy requirements in an environment-friendly manner, and bring India into the “global nuclear non-proliferation mainstream.”

“We have an unprecedented and historic opportunity before us. With this legislation, Congress will help ensure that the United States and India complete the journey we began together three years ago, and ensure that U.S. industry — just like its international counterparts — is able to engage with India on civil nuclear trade,” she said.

Separately, Ms. Rice told a news agency that the Bush administration was working “very hard” for the approval of the nuclear deal but stressed that the time is “short.”

She answered in the affirmative when told that it seemed to be a “fairly significant boost” that Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Howard Berman introduced a piece of legislation identical to the Senate version for the approval of the nuclear deal, according to the transcript of the interview released by the State Department.

She also clarified on the wording of Mr. Berman pertaining to how the U.S. intended to pursue at the NSG this November on the export of enrichment and reprocessing equipment.

Mr. Berman had told his colleagues in the House that he agreed to introduce the bill identical to the Senate version because Ms. Rice “made a personal commitment to me.”

The commitment, he had said, was that “in a change of policy — the U.S. will make its highest priority at the November meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group the achievement of a decision to prohibit the export of enrichment and reprocessing equipment and technology to states that are not signatories” to the NPT.

Asked to comment on Mr. Berman’s use of the word “prohibit” she said, “I think the wording actually is to seek strict limits on,” according to the transcript.

“...at the NSG, the United States has pursued this policy in the past, but we have pursued several other initiatives at the same time.

“And what I said to Chairman Berman, given that the Administration is coming to an end, this is something that we hope is doable. I couldn’t make any promises about delivery, but we would seek to do this,” she clarified.

“You know that the President has spoken about the need to do something about enrichment and reprocessing. And I think a global approach to this issue of the technologies is an appropriate one. But this has been our policy. But I think what Chairman Berman is speaking to is that we had also paired it with several other initiatives, and we’ll seek this one as the highest priority now,” she said.

Asked if she can really get a deal, she said, “We’ll work on it... I know there is a lot of support in the NSG for it, but the NSG is 45 countries and we’ll just have to go on working.” — PTI

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