WASHINGTON, Dec 9: The US Congress on Saturday reopened doors of nuclear commerce with India after a gap of three decades. The bill will now go to President George Bush on Monday.
The Republican-led 109th Congress ended on Saturday after approving the deal with an overwhelming margin of 330-59 votes.
The House of Representatives approved the bill at midnight on Friday and the Senate early on Saturday.
The Congress also softened its earlier condition that required the US president to declare each congressional year that India was cooperating with Washington in preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
Brig. (retired) Naeem Salik, a Pakistani nuclear expert at Washington’s Brookings Institution, pointed out that while it’s a bilateral agreement between the US and India, it does seek to cap Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities.
He referred to section 103B (1) of the approved bill which says that the US should try to “achieve at the earliest possible date, moratorium on the production of fissile material for nuclear explosive purposes by India, Pakistan and People’s Republic of China.”
“If India is required to do something in return for what it is getting from the US, that’s understandable,” Mr Salik said. “Why should Pakistan and China be required to place moratorium on their programmes? What are they getting in return?”
Brig. Salik, former director for disarmament at Pakistan’s Strategic Plans Division, also said that most restrictions placed in the bill on India were “suggestive, there’s nothing binding. No certification required.
The US president is only required to report that the deal is not contributing to India’s nuclear weapons programme and that nothing is misused.”
Similarly, he said, on Iran. India is required to cooperate with Washington but that too is not obligatory.
During the midnight session, Republican and Democratic lawmakers cooperated with each in overcoming some last-ditch opposition from a few Democrats who feared that the deal could lead to nuclear proliferation.
The vote followed an agreement earlier this year between Mr Bush and the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who had warned that India would not accept any deal that places too many restrictions on its nuclear programme or on its foreign policies.
Under the deal, India, a former Soviet ally, has secured the right to keep eight of its nuclear plants secret for military purposes while opening the other 14 plants – and all future civilian nuclear power plants – to international inspection.
The United States and other nuclear-supplier nations will provide fuel and technology for India's existing and future civilian facilities. India is expected to spend more than $100 billion on producing nuclear energy during the next 10 years and US companies hope to get a major share of these contracts.
US companies, who attended a major trade fair in Mumbai last week, also hope to sign lucrative defence deals with India as relations between the two countries expand. India has so far depended on Soviet and European sources for buying weapons.
Critics fear that the Indo-US deal will free Indian nuclear facilities for producing additional fuel for their military programmes, posing new threats to China and Pakistan. The two neighbouring nuclear states may respond to this new development by expanding their own programmes, which may accelerate a nuclear arms race in South Asia.
Nuclear experts are concerned that by making an exception for India, the US will find it difficult to rein in the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran and will further weaken non-proliferation treaties.
But in New Delhi, the deal was welcomed as an historic moment in relations between the two countries. India sees the deal as a tacit acceptance of its emergence as a global nuclear power.
Previously, the US had opposed Indian nuclear activities because it has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and has twice tested nuclear weapons, in 1974 and 1998.
Once the deal is finalized, India will become the first non-NPT country to enter into nuclear commerce with the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group.
Robert Einhorn, an analyst at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and former assistant secretary for non-proliferation at the State Department, voiced these concerns in testimony before Congress last year.
"In the near term, US plans to engage in nuclear cooperation with India will make it more difficult to address proliferation challenges such as Iran,'' Mr Einhorn said. “The deal has strengthened the case Iran can make – and is already making – internationally. Why, Iranian officials ask publicly, should Iran give up its right as an NPT party to an enrichment capability when India, a non-party to the NPT, can keep even its nuclear weapons and still benefit from nuclear cooperation?”
He said: "Other countries can be expected to follow suit in assigning non-proliferation a lower priority relative to political and commercial considerations in their international dealings, and this would have negative, long-term consequences for the global non-proliferation regime.''
The bill is entitled the Henry J. Hyde United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act of 2006,'' named for the retiring Illinois congressman who is also the outgoing chairman of the House International Relations Committee.
