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Rice hails nuclear deal as key to US-India future
A historic and highly sensitive deal that opens up US nuclear trade with India should trigger an across-the-board improvement in US relations with the country, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday en route to New Delhi.
- AP
- Published: 09:40 October 4, 2008
- US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stressed that she saw the importance of her visit to New Delhi as focusing on the future, rather than celebrating the completion of the civil nuclear agreement.
- Image Credit: AP
Ramstein Air Base, Germany: A historic and highly sensitive deal that opens up US nuclear trade with India should trigger an across-the-board improvement in US relations with the country, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday en route to New Delhi.
The agreement on civil nuclear cooperation allows American businesses to begin selling nuclear fuel, technology and reactors to India in exchange for safeguards and UN inspections at India's civilian - but not military - nuclear plants.
US opponents say it undermines international efforts to limit the spread of nuclear weapons; critics in India argue that it compromises their country's right to conduct nuclear bomb tests.
Speaking to reporters aboard her plane, which stopped at Ramstein to refuel, Rice said it was not certain whether she would sign the agreement during her one-day visit because "there are a lot of administrative details left to be worked out." US legislation authorising the controversial deal won final congressional approval on Wednesday. Rice said President Bush looks forward to signing the bill, but that is not a precondition for her discussions in New Delhi.
Whether a signing ceremony is held or not, "I'm going to draw a line under this" deal "one way or another because it's time to put the historic agreement — to say that that's done and move on to what else we can do" to strengthen and broaden the relationship, she added. The Bush administration considers the deal a crowning achievement of the president's second term in office.
It could, however, turn out to be the last major diplomatic achievement of a presidency that is struggling in its final months on a number of other fronts, including a setback in relations with Russia after its invasion of Georgia and the prospect of a breakdown in a nuclear agreement with North Korea.
In the onboard interview, Rice stressed that she saw the importance of her visit to New Delhi as focusing on the future, rather than celebrating the completion of the civil nuclear agreement.
"This is a relationship that has now a firm foundation to reach its full potential," she said. "It removes for India a barrier to full integration on a whole range of technologies," and it opens the way for closer US-India cooperation in other areas such as defence, agriculture and education. India built its nuclear bombs outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which it refuses to sign. It has faced a nuclear trade ban since its first atomic test in 1974; its most recent nuclear test blast was in 1998.
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