U.S. Reiterates Support for India-US Nuclear Deal
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US officials have time and again reminded New Delhi that it would be difficult to get Congressional approval for the implementing 123 Agreement finalized last July in an election year unless it comes up before the legislature before June-end.
India needs to sign an India specific safeguards agreement with the IAEA and get the approval of 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) before the US Congress can give its go-ahead. Senior government officials in India have announced that it is likely that the NSG step will take at least around a month to be completed.
Officials have also announced that due to the fact that the deal has been stuck in limbo for many months, the initial favorable momentum that India had created at the NSG in favor of the nuclear deal is now no long present.
Even though the NSG step is a largely an US effort, India had also been talking to the NSG countries. Due to the political roadblock, there has been no movement on the NSG front in the last couple of months. There is also opposition to the nuclear deal from some NSG countries itself.
One of the original architect’s of the US-India nuclear deal, Ashley Tellis, has already gone on record declaring that the deal is now dead saying that the political timeline has already expired.
His judgment connects with the timeline afforded by higher-ranking US Congress members who had stated before that the 123 accord has to reach the US Congress for approval by July. The bill also has to lie in the US Congress for a minimal of two to three months before it can be taken up for a vote.
While acknowledging that time was short for getting final approval in the US Congress before President George Bush, who looks at the India deal as a major foreign policy achievement, leaves office in January, the US administration is making all efforts to do so.
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