United States Senator John F Kerry of Massachusetts, while strongly declaring his support for the US-India civilian
nuclear agreement and pledging to vote in favour of the enabling legislation to facilitate this deal, has nonetheless called for an understanding of the several so-called "killer amendments" -- 18 in all at the last count -- that his Democratic colleagues have on tap if, and when, the Senate takes up the legislation for debate and a vote in the current lame-duck session.
Kerry, who headlined the Policy luncheon on Wednesday organized by The Coalition for Partnership with India -- a group comprising US industry and businesses and the Indian American community under the umbrella of the US-India Business Council and the US-India Friendship Council respectively -- in the interaction that followed his speech, spoke of how his colleagues are agonising of how to balance their nonproliferation concerns with their support for a US-India strategic partnership and the US-India civilian nuclear deal.
He said, "There's an explanation by a lot of people who want to vote for someone who has expressed concerns, but also not see an agreement that is ultimately not going to be a success."
Thus, he argued that "it's important for people to take note of them, and it is in those amendments that is defined a certain set of serious responsibilities for India to undertake over the course of these next months, respecting its sovereignty, respecting its independence, respecting its procedures, but understanding the need to make this even larger than just the raw, four corners of the agreement with respect to nuclear power."
"And I would urge people to look carefully at those amendments and at the sentiment and even the substance behind them," Kerry exhorted, "So that we can try -- all of us -- to advance the nonproliferation issues that stare us in the face as one of the most serious issues facing us in the world."
The former 2004 Democratic presidential candidate recalled, "When I was asked in the Presidential Debates -- and I was asked the question before the President -- as to what's the most serious threat in the world today, I said it's the threat of nuclear weaponry, nuclear materials for dirty bombs falling into the hands of terrorists. And the President agreed with me."
"So we are in agreement on the nature of the stakes here and these stakes are reflected in some of those amendments and we need to be supportive and thoughtful about that as we go forward," he said.
Earlier in his remarks, Kerry said. "Obviously, this has not been an easy process, and everybody has to be sensitive and understand that. And in my judgement, that places an appropriate and ongoing burden on India itself, as we go forward in the proliferation (sic) process -- not one that needs to be forced but one that needs to be accepted and I am confident that it will be."
He said, "We are trying to balance a number of key national interests here, from our own relationship with India to our global nonproliferation efforts. But I believe that the agreement that we've reached, moves us forward on all of those fronts."
Kerry said, "There are aspects of this agreement that some people on both sides wish had come out differently. It may not be the agreement that I or someone else might have put on the table at the beginning. But it's the agreement we have, and it's an agreement that I believe we've worked effectively on to address some of the concerns that people have"
"I believe the bill before the United States Senate is a good faith effort to make responsible foreign policy. Civilian nuclear cooperation is in India's interests and it's also in our interests," he said.
Kerry said, "There are consequences for signing a deal like this because it's the first time we are agreeing to engage in nuclear cooperation with a country that has a nuclear weapons program outside the nonproliferation treaty."
But he asserted that "while this is an unprecedented step, I am convinced that it makes sense because India's record as a trustworthy steward of nuclear material and technologies is unprecedented and different from other countries."
Kerry said, "India can help in our global nonproliferation efforts and they show good faith in the willingness to play a constructive role by voting with us in the International Atomic Energy Agency's effort to curb Iran's nuclear energies."
He also noted that 'India agreed to a series of commitments in the separation of civil and military facilities, the IAEA safeguards, that give me confidence and it gives us confidence to take the extraordinary step of carving out an exception to our nonproliferation regime."