Cautious Boucher toes Rice line on Hyde Act

NEW DELHI: US assistant secretary of state Richard Boucher met foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon on Tuesday to discuss the nuclear deal as well as regional issues such as the developments in Pakistan. Boucher, in-charge of central and South Asia, is here on a two-day visit.

Boucher was guarded on the impact of the Hyde Act on the Indo-US bilateral 123 agreement. “The Hyde Act is a domestic legislation, 123 is an international agreement,” he said.  “I think we can move forward with both.”

Boucher was basically echoing what US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said last month, that the changes in the Nuclear Suppliers Group guidelines to accommodate India have to be consistent with the Hyde Act.

The Rice remarks added grist to the Left and BJP fears that the Hyde Act would override the 123 agreement. The government, however, insists, and foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee did so again in parliament on Monday, that the Hyde Act was an enabling domestic legislation and had nothing to do with India.
g_seema@dnaindia.net