Bush administration wants US-India nuke deal passed before recess

Bush administration wants US-India nuke deal passed before recess

Washington (Platts)--10Jul2006

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday that the Bush
administration is pushing the US Senate and House of Representatives to vote
"yea" on the US-India Civil Nuclear Cooperation Initiative "this month, before
the summer recess."

Citing legislation passed by both houses of Congress recently despite
what she called "overwhelming partisan margins," Rice told the American
Association of Physicians of Indian Origin and the Asian-American Hotel Owners
Association in Washington that she was lobbying for the legislation with the
help of the India Caucus. "Our work is not yet done," she said.

A major goal of the initiative is easing India's "reliance on
hydrocarbons from unstable sources like Iran," Rice said. "This is good for
India and it's good for the US," she said. "Our civil nuclear initiative will
elevate our partnership to a new strategic level."

"This initiative will create...American jobs," she said, adding that it
would bring in "thousands of new jobs, directly and indirectly.

"By helping India's economy grow, we will thus be helping our own," she
said, adding that the initiative would bolster world stability.

"The US unequivocally supports the international nuclear nonproliferation
regime, the cornerstone of which is the [Nuclear] Nonproliferation Treaty,"
she said. "Let me be clear; we do not support India joining the [Nuclear]
Nonproliferation Treaty as a nuclear weapons state."

The goal is to include India in the global nonproliferation regime by
requiring India to place two-thirds of its existing and planned nuclear
reactors "under the watchful eye of the International Atomic Energy Agency,"
she added. The UK, France and Russia all support this goal, she said.

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