The US hopes there will be overwhelming support for the nuclear cooperation agreement with India when it comes for a final vote before the Congress by December 2007, Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns has said.
Addressing concerns that the agreement violates the spirit of the Hyde Act which empowers the US president to stop nuclear cooperation to countries conducting nuclear tests, Burns said these were "absolutely false."
Burns, who negotiated the 123 Agreement, in an interview to a think tank Council on Foreign Relations, made it clear that the US has "preserved intact" the president's right under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 to ask for return of nuclear fuel or nuclear technologies transferred by American firms if India conducts a nuclear test.
Asked whether he saw enough movement in Congress for securing vote for the agreement, he said India has to first conclude a safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency "which I expect will happen in the next 30 to 35 days."
"Secondly, the Indians will need to convince the Nuclear Suppliers Group that it should give the same kind of international treatment in terms of civil nuclear trade to India that the US would have just given bilaterally," he said.
"Once these two steps are taken, "then perhaps by November or December, we will be ready to formally send this agreement to Capitol Hill for a final vote. We hope that vote will mirror the Hyde Act vote which was, of course, an overwhelming vote in favour of India and the US by Congress," Burns said.