Indian Nuke bill: US Congress prepares to vote

Friday, December 8, 2006 (Washington/New Delhi):

The landmark India nuclear bill in the US Congress is expected to be voted later on Friday, in what will be a historic day for Indo-US ties.The text of the crucial final legislation is also public now and many of India's main concerns have been addressed."This is a historic agreement. A brilliant day," said Nicholas Burns, US Under Secretary of State. Government sources have told NDTV that India is generally happy with the final bill though there are some irritants.There have been substantial changes in language.
The House of Representatives Bill had made it binding on the US to stop other countries from supplying fuel if it couldn't. Now the US will not be legally forced to stop fuel supplies to India by other countries, should it stop its own supplies.
The original Senate Bill had asked that first the IAEA and India reach agreement on safeguards first. The new Bill says that both have already got legal parameters in place and that is not necessary before signing of an agreement.
The earlier Bills had called for annual certification by the US President on India's non-proliferation commitments. Now the new Bill has replaced certification with the general term assessment.Yet, there are certain provisions that could cause some heartburn. The final Bill calls on the President to report to Congress on whether India is actively backing international efforts to contain Iran's nuclear weapons capability. It was in the binding part of the senate bill has now been made non-binding, which is good news.Ambiguous clausesGovernment officials say they are generally happy with the bill but there are still concerns like the language on Iran, which could have a political fallout and other clauses which remain ambiguous. Sources say these issues will be sorted out later as the two sides get down to the nitty gritty of negotiating the actual bilateral agreement.The main areas of concern that Indian negotiators will still need to hammer home include:
Much of the language in the non binding portions, especially the reporting requirements by the President, has been described by one official as objectionable. For instance, how much uranium India is mining for its weapons programme
There is no mention of reprocessing of spent fuel by India, a big concern for scientists
While the language on the export of technology for uranium enrichment has become more positive it still does not give India access to this technology. This too will be negotiated later
There is still ambiguity on a clause which says fuel supplies will depend on operating requirements of reactors
And many of the contentious clauses remain on end use monitoring, that is, how India is using the fuel exportedOn the face of it, the final Bill seems to have taken into account many of India's concerns by either tweaking the language or shifting portions from one section to another, making them non-binding.Left objectionsBut the Left parties have been unhappy with this. The President will have to inform the Congress on how he plans to get India to declare when it will stop production of fissile material for nuclear weapons. Delhi maintains this can only be done through a Fissile Material Cut off Treaty, which even the US has problems with. The President is also required to report how much uranium India is mining or enriching for its weapons programme. The opposition, like the BJP has already called this an infringement on India's strategic objectives.Burns' assurancesInterestingly enough, US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns spent the morning meeting with senior political leaders from the Congress and the BJP. Speaking to NDTV, Burns said the Bush administration was a hundred percent happy with the new Bill. He was also at pains to clarify that the clause on Iran was non binding and the United States had no intention to infringe on India's foreign policy.The vote on the Bill is expected to go through on Friday in Washington, which is the last working day of the Congress.President George W Bush will likely hold a signing ceremony at the White House on Monday, putting into effect a major paradigm shift in global geostrategic relations.

Source : NDTV