Rice urges Cong to endorse US-India nuke deal

Washington, Jul 11: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged the US Congress to endorse the landmark US-India civilian nuclear deal by adopting the enabling legislation by the end of this month before it adjourns for its summer recess.

Addressing a luncheon meeting of an Indian American group of doctors and hoteliers, she said the legislation as re-written by the House and the Senate panels has already been approved by a overwhelming majority last month.

Stressing that President George Bush's vision was to strengthen, expand, and deepen the US-India relationship, Ms Rice said it also indicated his ''signature foreign policy initiatives''.

She said Mr Bush considers the civilian nuke deal with India as ''one of his premier foreign policy efforts''. She, however, added that ''our work is not yet done,'' referring to India's commitments as envisaged in the July 18 statement.

Under the deal, the US will allow India access to its sensitive nuclear technology while New Delhi will place some of its nuclear reactors under permanent safeguards of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency).

To enable this deal to become effective, an American law, the US Atomic Energy Act of 1954, needs to be modified giving a specific waiver to India. Currently this law prevents the United States from trading nuclear technology with nations that have not signed up the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

She mentioned how the administration officials worked hard to get the deal approved by the Congress. ''In recent months, my team and I have worked tirelessly with the Congress to fully implement our initiative with India''.

Ms Rice was addressing the event sponsored by the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) and the Asian-American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) at the Capitol Hilton Hotel in Washington D C.

''We've spent countless hours meeting with senators and congressmen of both parties- hearing their concerns, making our case and reaching agreement. We are encouraging both the Senate and the House to vote on the civil nuclear initiative this month, before the summer recess,'' she added.

Ms Rice strongly defended the deal as being a win-win situation for both the countries. She said the Indo-US deal would enhance relations between New Delhi and Washington, cut pollution and thus benefit the environment, create US jobs and help satisfy India's thirst for energy.

Citing the benefits she said, ''the civilian nuclear initiative will enhance energy security. India is a nation of over one billion people, with an economy growing at approximately 8 per cent per year.

This country is now the world's sixth largest energy consumer and its massive appetite for energy is of course growing. Diversifying India's energy sector will help it to meet the ever increasing needs of its people and, just as importantly, ease its reliance on hydrocarbons from unstable sources like Iran. This is good for India and it's good for the United States.'' ''This initiative will benefit the environment. As I said, India's carbon emissions are growing rapidly as it works to meet its development needs, mostly through fossil fuels. A better alternative for the world that we share would be one to help India develop clean, environment free nuclear energy and that is exactly what this initiative will do.'' ''This initiative will create opportunities for American jobs.

Civil nuclear cooperation with India will open a new market for American entrepreneurs and workers, which would create thousands of new jobs, directly and indirectly, within the United States. By helping India's economy grow, we would thus be helping our own.'' Ms Rice said, ''this initiative will add to the stability and security of our world. As I said back in April, when I testified on Capitol Hill, the United States greatly values and unequivocally supports the international nuclear nonproliferation regime, the cornerstone of which is the Non-proliferation Treaty. We desire to strengthen this regime, which is why we believe that India's continued isolation from it is the wrong policy.'' Explaining this she said, ''We do not support India joining the Non-proliferation Treaty as a nuclear weapon state. Rather, the goal of our initiative is to include India, for the first time ever, in the global non-proliferation regime. By requiring India to place two-thirds of its existing and planned civil nuclear reactors under the watchful eye of the International Atomic Energy Agency, this initiative would be a net gain for the cause of non-proliferation worldwide.'' She added that this is not only the position of the US Government, but also the opinion of governments in Great Britain, France and Russia. ''It is also the opinion of Dr Mohamed ElBaradei, the custodian of global non-proliferation,'' she said.

''We can define this new era not as 'the American century', not as 'the Indian century,' but as freedom's century,'' Ms Rice said, lauding a recent improvement in India-US relations. ''This is the great calling of our new partnership,'' she added.

UNI

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