New Delhi
19 February 2006
As a section of the Indian strategic community veers around to the
view that the Bush visit be delinked from the progress, or the lack of it, on the civil
nuclear cooperation agreement, United States Congressman Joseph Crowley has said
that the nuclear deal was not a "dead issue."
"It is not a dead issue by any means," Crowley said. He acknowledged that the India-US
civil nuclear cooperation agreement has hit "couple of stumbling blocks" but he was
confident that the deal will come through eventually.
"The problem," he explained, "lies in convincing the Congress" and reassured that
legislation did not happen overnight and that it will take "cajoling and convincing." He,
however, admitted he had not done any number crunching yet when he was asked about
bipartisan support for India-US nuclear deal in the House.
Crowley is a Democrat member of the House International Relations Committee and a
former co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India. He is in New Delhi and is
expected to call on the ministers for external affairs, defence, commerce and energy
during his stay in India.
The Congresman observed there were a number of options and mechanisms to induct
India into the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and to recognise India's good track record
on non-proliferation but, he hastened to add, "all of it takes amending of United States
statute."
He further said that the constitution of the US House of Representatives would see
certain "radical changes" as Republican House Majority leader Tom deLay has stepped
down and Henry Hyde, chairman of House International Relations Committee, has
announced he will be retiring.
The Congressman's remarks notwithstanding, certain members of the Indian strategic
community have suggested that the nuclear deal be not allowed to hijack the Bush visit.
"Let us separate [the] visit ... let discusion carry on [nuclear deal till we come to a
shared understanding," a former diplomat said.
No comments:
Post a Comment