By Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington: President Barack Obama has sent to the US Congress a mandatory bi-annual report on the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, detailing efforts made to strengthen the international nuclear non-proliferation regime.
“I transmit herewith the report required under section 204(c) of the United States-India Nuclear Cooperation Approval and Non-proliferation Enhancement Act, signed into law on Oct 8, 2008,” Obama said in his letter to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The content of the report has not been made public. But Under the Act, the president is required to certify to the Congress every six months about what he has done to further the “policy of the United States to work with the members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) individually and collectively, to agree to further restrict the transfer of equipment and technology related to the enrichment of uranium and reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel”.
The Act also requires the president “to seek to achieve, by the earliest possible date, either within the NSG or with relevant NSG participating governments, the adoption of principles, reporting, and exchanges of information as may be appropriate to assure peaceful use and accounting of by-product material in a manner that is substantially equivalent to the relevant provisions of the Agreement”.