India won’t get a 2nd nuke deal: US

New Delhi—Pressing India to speed up implementation of the Nuclear agreement, three influential US senators on Wednesday said the negotiations with IAEA and Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) should be wound up by May failing which New Delhi will not get a “similar” deal.
Senators Joseph Biden, John Kerry and Chuck Hagel, who met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here, said if the deal is not taken up the US Congress by June and the process completed during the tenure of President George W Bush, any new US administration will “renegotiate” the deal.
They talked about the possibility of Indo-US relations being impacted if the deal does not go through, saying there could be “misunderstanding” in India and questions as to whether the failure was deliberate by the US Congress. During the meeting, the Prime Minister told them about the “dilemma” and “difficulties” of his government because of coalition but remained optimistic about concluding the deal, the senators told a press conference here. “We are running out of time. The clock is running,” said Biden, Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee when asked what message they conveyed to Singh.
Biden said India will have to firm up the safeguards agreement with IAEA and seek waiver from 45-nation NSG before June to enable the US Congress to vote on it. “If the deal is not before the senate by early June, there will be little chance (of the deal going through),” he said, adding there would be practical problems as the Congress will have only 20 sittings during which issues related to US budget will dominate.
India must complete by July all steps needed to conclude a nuclear technology deal with Washington to ensure the US Congress approves it before the presidential polls, three US senators said on Wednesday.
The India-US civilian nuclear energy deal has been held up due to stiff opposition from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Communist allies who prop up the minority Congress-led government.
“Time is of the essence,” said Joseph Biden, one of three Democratic senators who were on a one-day visit to New Delhi after monitoring Pakistan’s parliamentary elections earlier this week. The pact still needs approval from the International Atomic Energy Agency to place India’s civilian nuclear reactors under UN safeguards as well as from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, which regulates global civilian nuclear trade.
The agreement, which would give New Delhi crucial access to civilian atomic technology, requires final approval by the US Congress where it currently enjoys bipartisan support. But Washington officials say the deal is running out of time with a tight 2008 legislative calendar ahead of November’s US presidential elections. “If we don’t have the deal back with us clearly prior to the month of July it will be very difficult to ratify the deal — not on the merits (of the deal) but on the mechanics on which our system functions,” Biden told a news conference.

—Agencies