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‘India’s stand not to kill N-deal’

David Mulford says India’s refusal to accept a provision barring it from conducting tests would not affect Indo-US ties.

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NEW YORK: US Ambassador to India David Mulford who is visiting Washington indicated that India’s refusal to accept a provision barring it from conducting new atomic tests is unlikely to scuttle the historic civil nuclear agreement with the US.

“It shouldn’t be an issue because the goalposts haven’t been moved. That is the reality,” Mulford told a Washington think-tank, American Enterprise Institute, on Monday  while outlining key elements of the nuclear initiative.

“India made its own unilateral declaration confirming that there wasn’t going to be any more testing. That was what was agreed. There is no change in the goalposts, which unfortunately has somehow gotten into the media and become an issue,” Mulford said referring to a leak of the draft agreement in New Delhi.

“As Congress comes to judge this situation, I think they will see that this is not an issue,” he added.

While working on the small print of the draft agreement, the US tried to stick a rider suggesting nuclear energy cooperation would be snapped if New Delhi were to conduct an atomic test. But last week the Indian foreign ministry nixed the provision telling US negotiators that such a rider had no place in the proposed agreement.

Ambassador Mulford, a key intermediary in the negotiation of this agreement, is now in Washington to discuss its details with the Bush administration and talk to members of Congress. He told the forum that the draft bilateral agreement detailing the Indo-US nuclear deal was still a work in progress.

“There will have to be some sort of wording arrangements which have not been agreed. The agreement is a matter to be discussed…it is a question of time and dedicated effort by the people who are involved on both sides,” said Mulford.

The US nuclear initiative with India has picked up tentative support from several key Senate Democrats, which bodes well for the pact’s approval. Some lawmakers have questioned whether the US gave away too much in the deal. But despite some sharp criticism, there appears to be a fair amount of bipartisan support for the deal in Congressional committees that still have to vote on it.

Several members of Congress say they will approve the deal despite reservations, because of the importance of closer ties with India. “The US and India are at a hinge of history that began with President Clinton’s trip to India in 2000,” Democrat Tom Lantos recently said while summing up the mood.

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