N-deal could be through in two months

KOLKATA/NEW DELHI: The Bush administration is making every effort to ensure the passage of the historic civil nuclear deal between India and the US within the next two months, a senior US diplomat has said.

"We hope to get the legislation moving and pass it in the next two months. Our Congress is independent but our administration is working on it," said Robert O. Blake, deputy chief of mission of the US embassy in New Delhi.

Blake was participating in a videoconference from New Delhi with the American Centre in Kolkata on Bush's visit to India and "New Directions in US-India Relations".

"For many years we tried to hold back our nuclear technology but because of your brain power you still succeeded in becoming a nuclear power. So we have lifted all those nuclear sanctions and the signing of the civil nuclear deal is historic. It is a departure from our over 30 years of policy," Blake said.

"We want high technology trade between the two countries," Blake said.

The deal was given a concrete shape during the visit of US President George W. Bush to New Delhi in March. When passed by the Congress, it will end a ban on trade with India in nuclear technology and material.

Blake said America's closeness with India was not driven by any ulterior motive but was because of the US foreign policy shift to Asia from Europe owing to issues like democracy, trade, trafficking and terrorism.

"The great issue of the day is terrorism and we cannot solve it by arrests. We have to win the battle of ideas. India has a Muslim population of 150 million, but they have not joined organisations like Al Qaeda," Blake said.

"You are one of the big stories of 21st century. Your economy is growing at eight percent and you have a growing middle class," said Blake, urging India to keep the reform process going to meet the challenges.

Speaking at the interaction, economist Abhirup Sarkar said though the trade between the two countries was still insignificant, India was becoming important because of the status of American Indians.

"Indians have the highest median income among all ethnic groups in America," Sarkar said.

Former Indian ambassador to the US Siddhartha Shankar Ray said India and the US were bound together emotionally, historically and socially.

"We have reached a status where none of us can question the alliance between India and the US," said Ray.