Atomic Club Votes to End Restrictions on
By Somini Sengupta and Mark Mazzetti
New York Times
September 7, 2008
The worldwide body that regulates
the sale of nuclear fuel and technology approved a landmark deal on Saturday to
allow
Only one hurdle now remains for the
deal: final approval by the United States Congress. But passage is likely to be
difficult, considering both political opposition and dwindling time in the
Congressional calendar before November’s elections.
If the agreement ultimately goes
through, it would stand as a symbol of the deepening strategic ties between the
State Department officials were
ecstatic about the vote Saturday by the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, or
N.S.G. “I don’t think a lot of people thought we’d be able to get this through
the N.S.G. this weekend,” said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was in
Both President Bush and the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh,
have cast the nuclear agreement as a legacy issue. The White House said the two
leaders spoke to each other on Saturday.
Indian and American proponents of
the deal hailed Saturday’s agreement as a historic opportunity to meet
Several members of the N.S.G. had in
recent days proposed several amendments that would terminate nuclear trade and
the sale of secret technologies if
Because any agreement requires
consensus among the member nations, administration officials had to lean hard
on the holdouts, principally
Ms. Rice made at least two dozen
calls over the last two days to push allies to allow for the India-specific
waiver, as she traveled across
After three days of fierce debates
in
Although a senior State Department
official said the White House has only two weeks to get the deal through
Congress, Ms. Rice told reporters traveling with her that she had been talking
to Congressional leaders and was hopeful it could be done.
Representative Howard L. Berman, a
Mr. Berman said that he wants to
check that the Bush administration did not cut any side deals with N.S.G.
member countries to get their votes. He wants to ensure, for instance, that the
Ultimately, he said, the burden was
on the White House to convince Congress that the nuclear pact needed to be
authorized in a “rushed” fashion.
Indian advocates for the deal were
elated.
“Most countries have realized the
logic of the
Indians were celebrating Saturday
night: small groups of revelers set off fireworks in honor of the deal in the
nation’s capital, and groups gathered to dance outside the headquarters of Mr.
Singh’s Congress Party.
A deal is considered important for
The country is now running short of
uranium for existing nuclear reactors because it does not have enough of a
domestic supply to feed them.
But even in
They have said the agreement would
impinge on
On Saturday, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party assailed
the deal as a “nonproliferation trap.” In defense, Mr. Singh’s government has
said
Under current law, Congress must be
in session a full 30 days to consider the nuclear deal. Congressional officials
said Saturday that the White House might be able to work with lawmakers to
circumvent this provision and expedite a vote.
A potentially more significant
hurdle for the White House is that a Democratic Congress might not want to give
President Bush a significant victory during his waning days in office. White
House officials have long hoped that the deal could be part of Mr. Bush’s
foreign policy legacy.
Lawmakers in late 2006 voted
overwhelmingly to support the White House’s plan to sell the civilian reactors
to
Representative Edward J. Markey, a
Massachusetts Democrat and a vocal opponent of the deal, said in a statement on
Saturday that with only a few weeks left in the Congressional session, “It is
highly questionable whether such a complex and controversial agreement can be
thoroughly examined before the House and Senate adjourn for the elections.”
Still, even some opponents of the
deal acknowledged that should the White House manage to force a vote in
September, the pact was likely to be approved.
Representative Ellen O. Tauscher, a
California Democrat, said by telephone on Saturday that the nuclear agreement
was a “very, very bad deal,” but said that since the 2006 vote indicated that a
large part of the House of Representatives was inclined to approve the pact and
that it would be difficult to scuttle the deal at this point.
In the end, if the deal is approved,
Or it could actively negotiate with
its rivals,
“This is the time for the Indian
government to declare what kind of nuke capability they will have and negotiate
with the other Asian powers to avoid a nuclear arms race,” Mr. Cohen said.