US to remove India’s concerns over N-deal, Bush assures Singh
By Anwar Iqbal and Jawed Naqvi
WASHINGTON / NEW DELHI, Dec 21: President George Bush assured India on Thursday that he would try to remove some of India’s concerns over the Indo-US nuclear deal signed into a law earlier this week.
Mr Bush telephoned Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh two days after he said that he too had some disagreements with the legislation he signed on Monday for offering civilian nuclear cooperation to India.
The legislation, called the Henry J Hyde US-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act, ends 30 years of India’s nuclear isolation.
While signing the act, which allows civilian nuclear trade with India, Mr Bush said nuclear cooperation between the two countries would make the world safer.
In a statement issued later, Mr Bush indicated that he did not agree with provisions like Section 103 and Section 104(d) (2) in the legislation.
Section 103 suggests that the US would oppose development of a capability to produce nuclear weapons by any non-nuclear weapon state within or outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty regime.
The section requires the US to work with the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group to further restrict transfers of equipment and technologies related to uranium enrichment, reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel and production of heavy water to all countries, including India.
The legislation also requires the US government to seek to prevent transfer of these equipment and technologies from other members of NSG or from any other source if the transfers are suspended or terminated.
Section 104(d) (2) stipulates that transfers to India cannot begin without suitable changes in NSG guidelines.
Mr Bush said his approval of the legislation did not mean that he was endorsing it as US foreign policy. He said the provisions were `advisory’.
The deal will be made operational by a separate `123 agreement’, called so after a section of the US Atomic Energy Act, between the two countries.
India will also have to sign a safeguard agreement with the IAEA besides which the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group is required to change its guideline to allow international community to have nuclear commerce with India.
New Delhi's concerns relate to fuel assurances besides provisions in the American legislation, which appear to seek putting a cap on fissile material production and end-use monitoring of spent fuel.
In New Delhi, the prime minister’s media adviser Sanjay Baru told reporters that during the telephonic conversation, Mr Singh informed the US president that `India still has some concerns, though many have been addressed’ in Mr Bush’s signing statement. “Both leaders expressed the hope that remaining concerns will be addressed in the next stage of negotiation.”
Both Mr Bush and Mr Singh expressed happiness at the `strengthening’ of the bilateral relations highlighted in the US president's initiative to amend American laws to enable bilateral civil nuclear cooperation, which received a strong bipartisan support in the US Congress, Mr Baru said.
