Bush commends House for voting for nuke deal

Washington, Jul 28: President George W Bush has commended the House of Representatives for passing the landmark legislation to enable US civil nuclear cooperation with India.

''This historic action by the House of Representatives is another important step toward building a new strategic partnership between the United States and India, the world's oldest and largest democracies,'' Mr Bush said in a White House statement.

The Indo-US civil nuclear cooperation initiative will help India generate more nuclear power to meet its enormous energy needs in a manner that does not increase greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, or increase demand on global oil and gas supplies. This initiative also advances US nonproliferation objectives by bringing India into the international nonproliferation mainstream.

The President also urged the Senate to act expeditiously to pass the companion legislation to enable this important initiative to become a reality.

The US State Department has also welcomed the strong support for the historic civil nuclear cooperation initiative.

''We appreciate the hard work of many members of the Congress who crafted this legislation, in particular Chairman Hyde, Ranking Member Lantos, and their staffs, and the House's willingness to consider the legislation promptly,'' said Tom Casey, Deputy Spokesman of the State Department.

''We hope the Senate will choose to act favorably on this initiative as soon as possible. We look forward to continuing to work with India to fulfill the promise of the July 18, 2005 and March 2, 2006 statements made by President Bush and Prime Minister Singh,'' said Mr Casey in a statement here yesterday.

UNI

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