The US and India have reached an operating agreement on peaceful
nuclear cooperation, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced
Friday.
"The US and India have reached a historic milestone in their
strategic partnership by completing negotiations on the bilateral
agreement for peaceful nuclear cooperation," she said in a
statement jointly issued with Indian Foreign Minister Shri Pranab
Mukherjee.
"The conclusion of negotiations on this agreement marks a major
step forward in fulfilling the promise of full civil nuclear
cooperation as envisioned by President (George W.) Bush and Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh," said the statement.
The civil nuclear cooperation will offer enormous strategic and
economic benefits to both countries, including enhanced energy
security, a more environmentally friendly energy source, greater
economic opportunities, and more robust nonproliferation efforts,
the statement said.
Rice did not provide details of the long-delayed, controversial
accord, which, according to local reports, has gone beyond the
terms approved by the US Congress.
The Washington Times reported Thursday that the US has agreed to
help India secure fuel for its reactors, even if it conducts
another atomic test.
The Bush administration made the major concession in closed-door
talks with visiting Indian officials last week to save the civilian
nuclear-energy deal with India, the newspaper quoted diplomats and
nonproliferation experts as saying.
Sources familiar with the new proposal said the United States
had offered to "consider the circumstances" before cutting off
cooperation in the event of a nuclear test by India. In fact,
Washington has even offered to help New Delhi secure alternative
supplies of nuclear fuel as a way of getting round a US
embargo.
The sources said deal had been negotiated under pressure from
India, which was determined to avoid having its hands tied in its
nuclear rivalry with neighboring Pakistan.
One source with knowledge of the proposal said, "The US would
join India in seeking a fuel-supply agreement with the IAEA
(International Atomic Energy Agency)."
"If there were an interruption, the U.S. and India will convene
a group of friendly supplier countries, such as Britain and Russia,
to restore the supply," the unidentified source said.
Christopher Griffin, a research fellow at the American
Enterprise Institute, said the Bush administration's concessions
are not a "real surprise, because its interest is not as much in
nonproliferation as in removing the barrier to strategic
cooperation with India on a broader agenda."
The US and India reached a historic agreement on civil nuclear
cooperation in March 2006, giving India access to US civil nuclear
technology, and opening its nuclear facilities to inspection.
US President George W. Bush in December 2006 signed into law a
bill approved by Congress allowing the deal to go through, a major
step toward letting India buy US nuclear reactors and fuel for the
first time in 30 years.
But US Congress attached several conditions to the law which
were unpopular in New Delhi, and the two countries had to return to
negotiations.
Under the bill, the US president would be required to end the
export of nuclear materials if India tests another nuclear device.
India last performed nuclear tests in 1998.
The bill also does not guarantee uninterrupted fuel supplies for
reactors and prevents India from reprocessing spent atomic
fuel.
Indian critics have said the agreement would put restrictions on
the country's nuclear weapons program.
(Xinhua News Agency July 28, 2007)
