India would not mind if the United States enters into a civil nuclear deal with Pakistan, since every country has the right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee was speaking at a press conference in Washington on Friday after signing the nuclear deal. He said: “We will like to encourage civil nuclear cooperation for peaceful use of nuclear energy.”
This was in against the US remarks that it has been saying: United States will not enter into such agreement with any other country.
India and United states finally clinched the 123 nuclear agreements at 4.16 p.m. Friday (1.46 a.m. Indian time Saturday), which Bush had said as the “landmark” during signing the nuclear deal legislation into law recently; thus cleared the ways for India to enter into civil nuclear cooperation with America, ending the 34-year nuclear isolation.
'India's commitment to non-proliferation is second to none,' said Mukherjee, recalling that on Sep 5 he had reiterated New Delhi's commitment to a unilateral voluntary moratorium to nuclear tests declared in 1998 after India conducted five nuclear tests in a row.
After signing the 123 agreement, the body language of the two signatories simply indicated the two largest democratic countries had entered into a new era of faith, cooperation and commitment.
“Today is an important day for the India-US relations. This historic occasion marks the beginning of resumption of India's civil nuclear cooperation and trade with the US and with the wider international community,” hailed Mukherjee after Rice, who said, “Today we look to the future, a shared future in which both our nations together rise to our global responsibilities and our global challenges as partners.”
On this historic occasion Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, Prime Minister's Special Advisor on Nuclear Deal, Shyam Saran; Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission of India, Anil Kakodkar, and the Indian Ambassador to the US, Ronen Sen were also present to escort Mukherjee.
The deal was to be signed by Condoleeza Rice on her recent visit to India, but could not be done because of India had certain concerns over fuel supply and technology transfer and wanted Bush to give assurance.
That’s why India was waiting for “signing statement” that Bush had to issue before signing the nuclear bill into law.
On Wednesday, President Bush in his “signing statement” terming the 123 Agreement between the two countries as “landmark” said, US will fulfil all its fuel assurance commitments in the agreement. He also specified that the agreement recognises India’s right to reprocess spent fuel.
The nuclear deal, kicked off by President Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh nearly three years ago on July 18, 2005, will end the ban on nuclear trade since India conducted a nuclear test in May 1974.
Before entering civil nuclear deal with United States, India had concluded similar agreement with France on September 30 owing to delay by the US Congress in passing the nuclear bill.
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