US Congress waits 'til last minute on US-India nuclear deal

Dec 9, 2006, 1:18 GMT

Washington - The US Congress, heading into its final session before recess late Friday, was still poised to pass a landmark nuclear cooperation deal between the US and India.

The vote, along with several other out-standing issues including trade with Vietnam and Africa and budgetary matters, was expected to be one of the last acts of the Republican-controlled body that will cede control to opposition Democrats in January.

Both houses of Congress earlier this year approved different versions of a bill authorizing the deal, and a negotiating committee reconciled the bills on Thursday, setting up Friday's vote.

The legislation will allow the US to sell nuclear fuel and reactors to India despite the Asian nation not being a part of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

In debate on the bill Friday, there were warnings from some opposition Democrats that supplying India's needs for civilian nuclear power will free up New Delhi to use its own resources to build more nuclear bombs, escalating the nuclear arms race with Pakistan.

'This bill is a historic mistake that will come back to haunt the United States and the world,' said Congressman Edward Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts.

Democratic Representative Tom Lantos welcomed Thursday's agreement between legislators of both chambers, calling it the 'latest step in a long and sometimes arduous legislative process (that) has resulted in a satisfying consensus.'

'This will be of immense importance to global security and economic development, while at the same time furthering our interests in limiting the spread of nuclear weapons,' said Lantos, a Democrat who is set to become chairman of the House International Relations Committee in January.

US law does not currently allow the transfer of nuclear technology to countries that have not signed on to the NPT, and Congress had sought assurances that the deal will not help India's nuclear weapons programme.

India paved the way for an agreement in March by agreeing to separate its civilian and weapons programmes in order to comply with Congressional demands.

Markey said it was hypocritical for the United States to make an exception for India, which is not a member of the NPT, while pressuring the international community to forbid Iran, which is a member of the NPT, to develop civilian nuclear power.

He cited research that projected India, which now constructs seven nuclear bombs a year, will boost its production to 40 to 50 bombs a year. He said Pakistan is building a new facility to increase its production from two to three bombs a year to 40 or 50.

'The Pakistanis and Iranians are not going to sit on their hands (while) Americans preach temperance from their bar stool,' Markey said.

Supporters of the bill say adequate protections and inspections are built into the law.

US President George W Bush has strongly backed the deal - first proposed in the summer of 2005 - and made it a priority for legislation to be passed before the end of the year. The last day for the bill to be passed is Friday, after which Congress is set to go into recess for the year-end holidays.

India first detonated a nuclear device in 1998 but has refused to submit its programme to the checks and restraints outlined by the NPT. The test triggered US sanctions against India, which were lifted early in Bush's presidency.

The landmark nuclear deal signified the strong ties that have developed between the United States and India after decades of frosty relations during the Cold War, when New Delhi was friendly with the Soviet Union.

India on Friday welcomed progress on the bill, but said its foreign policy would not be bound by some 'extraneous' and 'prescriptive' provisions in the legislation.

'The enactment of the bill has wider implications for India's access to international cooperation in civilian nuclear energy and is, therefore, of historic significance,' India's Foreign Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said.

Sarna said the government also noted that the draft contained certain extraneous and prescriptive provisions.

'As the Indian Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) stated in Parliament, no legislation enacted in a foreign country can take away from us the sovereign right to conduct foreign policy determined solely by our national interests,' Sarna said.

The Indian establishment had objected to provisions in the earlier drafts of the legislation which linked nuclear cooperation to India's support for international efforts to contain Iran's nuclear weapons capability.

Earlier on Friday, US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns who is in New Delhi for talks with Indian officials, brushed aside criticism that Washington was trying to dictate to India on the Iran nuclear issue, the PTI news agency reported.

Burns also said the US had a 'separate ambition' of developing a closer military relationship with India, adding that the US will transfer US naval vessels to India.

'We are very hopeful that the US can participate in the transformation of the Indian armed forces,' PTI reported Burns as saying at a press conference.

The landmark nuclear deal, which was finalized during Bush's visit to India in March, will end a three-decade ban on India from purchasing US fissile technology and materials.

Under the accord India will be required to submit current and future civilian reactors to international inspections. Military and weapon facilities will not be internationally monitored.