Nicholas Burns call India ' trustworthy partner'

Washington, Mar 17: Describing India as 'a trustworthy partner,' US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas
Burns said the US has accorded exceptional treatment to India because it is the only country that has no proliferation problems.

Allaying all skepticism about the India-US civilian nuclear initiative Mr Burns, who was the chief negotiator on the deal said, ''India is a country that when it makes commitments, follows up on those commitments and adheres to its international agreements.

We believe that's the case with the Indian Government, that it's a trustworthy partner.'' Briefing reporters at the State Department here yesterday soon after legislation on the deal was introduced in the US Congress, Mr Burns said, ''We also think it's very important to recognise that the only possible country that could achieve the kind of agreement that we'd like to see in the NSG would be India because other countries have proliferation problems.''

He said Iran and North Korea have so clearly violated their commitments that they wouldn't ever stand a chance of receiving
exceptional treatment at the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

Dismissing the contention that creating a precedent for India would somehow dilute the proliferation regime Mr Burns said clearly it would not. There is almost a multilateral consensus that ''if India can come into the system, if the safeguards can be put into
place, if India can meet these commitments to the international community which we think it can, it's going to strengthen that
regime, not weaken it. So we're confident that this is a deal that is good for our country, as well as India, as well as a
nonproliferation regime.''

UNI