US to adjust for India concerns

NEW DELHI: US Ambassador to India David Mulford indicated on Friday that some of the objectionable elements in the two draft bills on Indo-US nuclear cooperation may be modified or dropped altogether.

His comments should bring cheer to the foreign policy establishment, which is irritated with some formulations in the two bills, particularly in the draft approved by the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday.

Mulford told media that the US administration would speak to members of the US Congress and ask them to look again at some of the provisions. He said Congress may be asked to change the language or drop these provisions completely.

Mulford is travelling to Washington next week in time for the vote on the floor in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. After that there will be a closed door conference between the two chambers at which differences in the two bills will be reconciled and they will be amalgamated into one bill that will ultimately become US law.

He said he plans to work closely with members of Congress on various aspects of the bills. India would like to see the reference to Iran (contained in the House Committee draft) and certain clauses in the Senate draft dropped. An official said the ideal bill would reflect the sense of Congress as spelt out in the Senate draft and contain the legislative provisions of the House draft.

Mulford’s remarks are backed up by the closing statement of Senator Lugar at the end of Thursday’s vote in the Senate Committee. Lugar said, “We look forward to continuing this work in consultation with Senate colleagues, the House of Representatives and the Bush Administration. I move that Committee staff be permitted to make technical and correcting amendments to the bill’s text.’’

His remarks suggest that he is aware that there are clauses in the draft bill that are unpalatable to both India and the Bush administration. He seemed to be prodding his colleagues to rework these clauses.

Mulford said he believed that the strong bi-partisan support for the nuclear deal seen in the two committee votes would be reflected on the floor of both chambers. It was clear, he stressed, that both parties see the deal as something that is in the national interest of the US.

He endorsed Indian expectations that the entire process, through various stages in US Congress, in the NSG and with the IAEA, would be over by the end of the year.