NEW DELHI: The United States expects the Nuclear Suppliers Group to amend its guidelines to accommodate India this month and will then table the India-U.S. civil nuclear agreement before Congress in September first week, U.S. Ambassador David Mulford has said.
“The U.S. understands that India will not sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This was the basis of the negotiations with which we had gone forward and that was addressed throughout the negotiations,’ he told journalists here over phone from Washington on Tuesday.
On the clean exemption issue, he offered a personal opinion. “Unconditional is not a very good word in this context…. there is a huge amount of work on this understanding and, therefore, to use the word unconditional to me is oversimplification. I will be hoping only for a clean exemption. That is my personal view and not of the U.S. government,” he said.
Mr. Mulford said the U.S. had launched a major diplomatic offensive to convince the NSG nations to approve India’s entry into global civil nuclear trade and was confident that the U.S. sponsored draft would soon be ready for circulation among the 45-member countries.
He, however, did not wish to speculate on whether Congress would be able to approve the agreement in the short time that is left before it goes into recess.
“The U.S. Congress is a sovereign body and it has its own procedure and rules. So at this point, nobody really knows whether it will be able to act in the very short period of time at its disposal. What we are trying is to position the 123 Agreement in Congress. The goal is to complete the NSG process in August and submit it in early September,” he told journalists over phone from Washington.
“The notice period can be changed but it is not possible to speak on behalf of Congress,” he added, when asked whether Congress would waive the mandatory time period for considering the bill.
Mr. Mulford said:
“The U.S. is very heavily engaged in a major diplomatic offensive at all levels. We continue to move forward and are working very closely with the Government of India to coordinate this process. We are working out the language we want to submit to the NSG. One that is done, we will submit it to the NSG and hope it moves quickly in August.
“We want to underline that we have already shared the draft with India. We want to get the right sort of draft that will be most effective with the NSG. In the coming days we will complete the work and distribute it to NSG members.”
Refusing to speculate about what will happen at the NSG meeting, he expected “people to listen seriously and hope at the end of the day they will accept. We would not wish to see the additional points raised so that they become part of the process. This is a very complex process and we are now moving to the final stage. And obviously we hope that all players come together at the NSG and accept that the aim of this to normalise civilian nuclear process with India.”
Mr. Mulford could not confirm whether President George Bush had invited Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a visit next month. But, if Dr. Singh goes to attend the United Nations General Assembly in September, “it is possible for them to meet,” he said.
“The U.S. understands that India will not sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This was the basis of the negotiations with which we had gone forward and that was addressed throughout the negotiations,’ he told journalists here over phone from Washington on Tuesday.
On the clean exemption issue, he offered a personal opinion. “Unconditional is not a very good word in this context…. there is a huge amount of work on this understanding and, therefore, to use the word unconditional to me is oversimplification. I will be hoping only for a clean exemption. That is my personal view and not of the U.S. government,” he said.
Mr. Mulford said the U.S. had launched a major diplomatic offensive to convince the NSG nations to approve India’s entry into global civil nuclear trade and was confident that the U.S. sponsored draft would soon be ready for circulation among the 45-member countries.
He, however, did not wish to speculate on whether Congress would be able to approve the agreement in the short time that is left before it goes into recess.
“The U.S. Congress is a sovereign body and it has its own procedure and rules. So at this point, nobody really knows whether it will be able to act in the very short period of time at its disposal. What we are trying is to position the 123 Agreement in Congress. The goal is to complete the NSG process in August and submit it in early September,” he told journalists over phone from Washington.
“The notice period can be changed but it is not possible to speak on behalf of Congress,” he added, when asked whether Congress would waive the mandatory time period for considering the bill.
Mr. Mulford said:
“The U.S. is very heavily engaged in a major diplomatic offensive at all levels. We continue to move forward and are working very closely with the Government of India to coordinate this process. We are working out the language we want to submit to the NSG. One that is done, we will submit it to the NSG and hope it moves quickly in August.
“We want to underline that we have already shared the draft with India. We want to get the right sort of draft that will be most effective with the NSG. In the coming days we will complete the work and distribute it to NSG members.”
Refusing to speculate about what will happen at the NSG meeting, he expected “people to listen seriously and hope at the end of the day they will accept. We would not wish to see the additional points raised so that they become part of the process. This is a very complex process and we are now moving to the final stage. And obviously we hope that all players come together at the NSG and accept that the aim of this to normalise civilian nuclear process with India.”
Mr. Mulford could not confirm whether President George Bush had invited Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a visit next month. But, if Dr. Singh goes to attend the United Nations General Assembly in September, “it is possible for them to meet,” he said.
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