Bush committed to seeing nuclear agreement through: Hopper

Kochi, Mar 11 (UNI) Declaring that President George Bush was committed to seeing through the Congress the civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with India, US Consul-General David T Hopper said both countries had several things in common and bilateral relations were bound to grow.

Speaking on the theme of 'Current Trends in Indo-US Relations' at a function organised by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce here last night, Mr Hopper, who is the Consul-General at the US Consulate in Chennai, said the President was trying to persuade those opposed to the agreement about its advantages, for both the US and India.

Describing the agreement as ''historic'', Mr Hopper said it would serve to meet India's growing energy needs while at the same time bringing its civilian reactors under international safeguards.

Describing the US and India as vibrant democracies with diverse societies and civilian control over the military, Mr Hopper said that despite some differences, relations between the two countries were bound to grow.

Replying to queries from the audience later, Mr Hopper said the US would open its second Consulate in South India at Hyderabad some time next year.

He said Mr Bush had announced the setting up of the Consulate during his recent visit to Hyderabad.

This would help to clear the backlog of visa applications, he added.

About the ''high rejection rate'' of visa applications from India, Mr Hopper said that there had been a 17 per cent increase in the number of visas issued by the Chennai Consulate.

Any increase in the quota of H1B visas will have to be approved by the Congress, he added.

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