Why implementing N-deal is high on US agenda

A major priority on the agenda of United States Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, William J Burns --- who will be the first senior US official to visit India after the Lok Sabha polls -- will be to begin discussions with senior Indian officials about operationalising the India-US civilian nuclear deal.

Sources told rediff.com that US business and industry, which lobbied feverishly to push through the deal, have been urging the administration to move quickly on this front because it didn't want to lose out to the French or Russians companies in the nuclear energy market in India.

Burns will also urge the Indian government to move expeditiously to provide nuclear liability protection, so that these companies will be absolved of any massive lawsuits in the event of an accident.

American companies have held that this is a mandatory requirement for them to engage in nuclear trade with India.

Burns, who will visit New Delhi and Mumbai between June 10 and June 13, is also scheduled to meet External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, Minister of State Shashi Tharoor, Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and several other senior officials in New Delhi and business heavyweights in Mumbai.

The State Department, which announced Burns' visit on June 2, said, "While in India, Under Secretary Burns will meet senior government officials and private sector leaders to discuss a broad agenda to further strengthen partnership between the United States and India."

Diplomatic sources said that India's ambassador to the US, Meera Shankar, would also return to New Delhi for consultations and to meet Krishna. The sources added that she would also be involved in the discussions with Burns and his delegation, including on ways to move the India-US nuclear agreement forward to facilitate commercialisation of the accord.

A day after presenting her credentials to President Barack Obama last month, Shankar, who was accorded a reception by the US-India Business Council, assured US business and industry that India is committed to moving forward on the deal.

"This (deal) is very high on our priority. We are conscious of the fact that it was the US government which did the heavy hitting -- if I may use a cricketing metaphor -- to get this deal through," she said.

On the ratification of the treaty known as the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage, which was put on hold by the government because the Left Front was railing against it, Shankar said, "We are also looking at the liability issues, which is a concern for US companies and that is something on which the Indian government has a policy discussion and is expected to move the issue forward."

But she stressed that the US should liberalise its stringent export licensing procedures so that the full potential of the nuclear deal could be realised.

Late last year, former President George W Bush issued the necessary certifications to Congress that the US industry and business were pushing for, to operationalise the deal, so that it would not be left in limbo for the next administration.

Bush formally certified to Congress that the 123 Agreement, which was signed on October 10 by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and then External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, was consistent with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

At the time Ron Somers, president of the USIBC, which had hired top lobbying firm Patton Boggs to push through the deal in Congress, had told rediff.com, "We hope now that India will move forward quickly on passing the equivalent of a conventional supplementary compensation  -- the CSC -- which is the international treaty that limits liability in the event of a nuclear accident."

He added, "This would be essential for the Indian private sector to be able to participate in the civil nuclear programme and the civil nuclear build-out in India."

Somers also said US business and industry were hopeful that "there could be a change in the Indian Atomic Energy Act that will enable and facilitate the entry of the Indian private sector in the civil nuclear power business."

Robert Einhorn, a former assistant secretary of state for nonproliferation affairs in the Clinton administration and later in the Bush administration for a couple of years, was recently appointed as a special advisor to Clinton nonproliferation and arms control.

However, sources in the Barack Obama administration assured that the appointment of Einhorn, who had strongly opposed the nuclear deal, will not have an adverse impact on the implementation of the agreement.

Earlier, President Obama had named two other nonproliferation hawks, who had also been critics of the deal, to senior positions. Gary Samore was named as the head of nonproliferation affairs at the National Security Council, and former Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher, who led the effort in the House to torpedo the agreement, was named Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security.

However, administration sources told rediff.com, "The (nuclear) deal is a done deal, and there is not going to be any tampering with it. Now it's only a case of putting it into the operational phase in terms of commercialising it for the mutual benefit of both India and the US."

But these officials did not rule out the possibility of Einhorn, Samore and Tauscher pushing for high priority items on the Obama administration's nonproliferation agenda ----- like ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty.

In an exclusive interview with rediff.com, just before he joined the administration, Samore said, "I believe one of the early decisions Obama will make is whether to seek Senate ratification of the CTBT, because the Obama administration will want to demonstrate very early that they are restoring American leadership in the international arms control area."

He predicted that once the Senate ratifies the CTBT, "there will inevitably be pressure on other countries like China and India and Pakistan to ratify the treaty."

Samore disclosed that "the Chinese have said privately that if America ratifies the CTBT, then they will too. India will naturally be the next big country people will focus on and the Indian government will have to make a decision."

Samore acknowledged, "Of course, there's an argument that India has only tested a few times, whereas other countries have tested many times and India needs to keep that option open."

"But that kind of argument will not be a popular argument internationally," he said.

India, ahead of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit in July, has already clarified that it will not be pressured into entering into such treaties unless there is a commitment by all countries, including the five nuclear club members, to universal disarmament.

Menon told reporters on June 3 in New Delhi that "we will welcome real action toward disarmament. What we want is a time-frame and legally binding steps towards a world free of nuclear weapons."

"We will work with our partners internationally towards this objective," he said, and declared, "We are a responsible nuclear power."