The bill is expected to achieve four key goals, Bush said, adding that its significance goes beyond economics.
WASHINGTON: The number 123 had special significance for India on Monday – India defeated South Africa in the first Test at Johannesburg by 123 runs; while in Washington, US President George W Bush signed the Henry J Hyde United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act into law, a legislation that gives the go-ahead for the final 123 Agreement on nuclear energy cooperation deal between the two countries. The law overturns more than 30 years of America's isolationist policy on nuclear trade with India.
In an elaborate ceremony at the White House's East Room and attended by more than 100 specially-invited Indian Americans, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, current and former US ambassadors to India, senators and congressmen, Bush signed the legislation saying “the rivalries that once kept our nations apart are no more”.
The bill is going to achieve four key goals, Bush said, adding that the significance of the bill goes beyond economics. “The bill will keep America safe by paving the way for India to join the global effort to stop the spread of nuclear weapons,” he said. “ In return for access to American technology, India has agreed to open its civilian nuclear power programme to international inspection… the world is going to be safer.”
Tom Lantos, co-author of the bill and the incoming chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said: “The signing of this bill is a historic moment for both our great countries, one that will usher in a new age of friendship and cooperation.” The Act will also achieve four important goals, which includes strengthening cooperation between the two countries on one of the most important challenges of 21st century, that is energy. Bush said the Act will also “open new important market” for American companies paving the way for investment in India's civil nuclear industry for the first time ever.
The president was joined in the signing ceremony by Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Richard Lugar (Republican, Indiana) and Congressmen Joe Crowley (former chairman of the House India Caucus) and Gary Ackerman (founding chairman of the House India Caucus). The signing of the bill into law means that the action on the deal now moves to the two governments.
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