There is a clear difference in the Indian and American positions on “uninterrupted fuel supply to India” if it conducts a nuclear test
NEW DELHI; There is a clear difference in the Indian and American positions on “uninterrupted fuel supply to India” if it conducts a nuclear test and this will have to be hammered out despite the euphoria at the clean waiver conceded finally by the Nuclear Suppliers Group in Vienna.
The interpretation given by Indian officials in private is that US supplies will be cut off while there would be no disruption from other countries like Russia or France, which did not have the same tough domestic laws.
The State Department’s take is different. American lawmakers were assured that the attempt is not to “insulate India against the consequences of a nuclear test.’’ Indian officials have said they would raise the issue with the US and ask for clarifications.
US ambassador David Mulford on Monday said: “It is a very straightforward issue. The fuel assurances are contained in the language of the 123 Agreement.”
The US envoy said: “Those words were negotiated by and signed off on by the President and the Prime Minister in March of 2006. They were employed word for word in the 123 Agreement. So those are the fuel assurances. There are no other fuel assurances. That is where you look to get your answer, and I don’t know of anybody in New Delhi who is raising this issue with Washington.’’
Yet for the moment both India and the US are in a mood to celebrate what Mulford calls a “clean” exemption for India by the NSG. “It is a major accomplishment and triumph and marks end of India’s isolation,” he told reporters on Monday.
Though Mulford made all the right noises about India-US relations and cooperation in all spheres, the Americans are apparently angry with Indian officials for the innuendoes and mutterings about US motives that were doing the rounds in Washington and Vienna.
Every time the discussions hit a roadblock in Vienna, there was suspicion about US motives. Was the US trying to get its domestic laws replicated at the NSG? There was enormous speculation on this score in official circles.
Much of this was triggered after California Democrat and chairman of the House foreign relations committee Howard Breman’s disclosure of the Bush administration’s clarifications to US lawmakers just days before the all important NSG meeting. This infuriated and embarrassed the Indian government.
Mulford tried to clear the air: “More recently there have been press reports to the effect that when the Berman material was released that somehow the US was working against this deal or subverting it. All of this is utterly and totally false.’’
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