By Arun Kumar, IANS
Washington : The US says it will continue cooperation with India to complete their landmark civil nuclear deal even after Washington’s key negotiator Nicholas Burns leaves the State Department in March.
“I think we’ll continue our cooperation in order to achieve that goal of getting the agreement completed,” White House spokesperson Tony Fratto said Wednesday when asked about the fate about the agreement.
However, he would not say whether President George Bush himself or anybody else was in touch with New Delhi about the deal which has been in limbo thanks to opposition from Indian government’s leftist supporters.
Announcing Burns’ surprise resignation due to “family concerns” last month, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had said that the third ranking top career diplomat would keep a role in working on the deal after he “retires”.
Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, she said had agreed to “spend some time continuing to work on the India file, particularly because we would like to push the US Civil Nuclear Agreement to conclusion if possible”.
Burns, 51, himself promised, “to finish this very promising strategic opening with India which will do so much good for our country and our global foreign policy”.
The implementing 123 Agreement that Burns negotiated with Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon last July has to be approved by the US Congress before the landmark deal takes effect.
New Delhi also has to wrap up a safeguards pact with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) before approaching the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) for a change in its guidelines to permit global civil nuclear commerce with India.
A former spokesperson of the State Department, Burns played a key role in pushing the Henry Hyde Act, the enabling US law through the Congress in 2006. He played an equally crucial role in hammering out the implementing 123 Agreement with India last year.
Burns often described the nuclear deal as the centrepiece of a new strategic partnership with India. “As we Americans consider our future role in the world, the rise of a democratic and increasingly powerful India represents a singularly positive opportunity to advance our global interests,” he recently wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine.
“There is a tremendous strategic upside to our growing engagement with India. That is why building a close US-India partnership should be one of the United States’ highest priorities for the future. It is a unique opportunity with real promise for the global balance of power,” he said.