David Mulford says US cannot compel its companies to provide fuel to India
NEW DELHI: The US senate may have okayed the India-US civil nuclear deal, but prime minister Manmohan Singh’s government can hardly afford to celebrate as yet.
George W Bush will sign the 123 agreement into a law and make a statement, called presidential determination, which Delhi hopes will address some of its concerns and make it easy for the UPA to sell the deal to its domestic constituency.
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice arrives here on Saturday to formally sign and seal the deal with foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee. The deal has been initialed but not signed.
Officials involved in negotiations for the last three years are heaving a sigh of relief that the 123 agreement went through the US congress without major changes. “Changes in the bilateral agreement would have killed the deal,” a senior official said. “The 123 text, not the Hyde Act, will govern our nuclear cooperation with the US,” he said.
US ambassador David Mulford also told reporters soon after returning from Washington: “The content of the 123 agreement has been preserved and it faithfully honours the declaration made on July 2005 by president Bush and prime minister Singh.”
However, fuel supply guarantees, so crucial to India, remain a grey area. “In the 123 agreement, which is going to be a law, not every single commitment is binding,” Mulford said and added that the US could not compel its companies to guarantee fuel supply.
Also, though the deal has been sold as a non-polluting energy pact, it is more to do with US international strategy. The Bush administration wanted India to be a part of the new security architecture of Asia-Pacific to balance the growing clout of China.
g_seema@dnaindia.net
