New Delhi, December 8
Visiting US under secretary of state Nicholas Burns today made two significant remarks having an important bearing on the next stage of the Indo-US civilian nuclear cooperation deal after its expected passage by the Congress by tomorrow.

Mr Burns said it was in China’s interest to support the Indo-US nuclear deal and the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) would have a positive reaction on the deal after its passage in the Congress.

The optimism of an upbeat Mr Burns probably flowed from the unified Bill that seemed to have taken care of certain key Indian concerns which were perceived to be sure deal-breakers.

There had been significant changes in the text of the unified Bill that was expected to be voted by the two chambers of the US Congress within the next 24 hours.

The House of Representatives Bill had made it binding on the US to stop other countries from supplying fuel it could not.

Now the US would not be legally forced to stop fuel supplies to India by other countries, should it stop its own supplies.

Another important change in the unified Bill was that the original Senate Bill had asked that India and the IAEA reach an agreement on safeguards first.

The new Bill stipulated that both had got legal parameters in place and that was not necessary before signing of an agreement.

The dreaded annual certification clause, which was a red flag to the Indian strategic establishment, had been toned down.

The earlier Bills had called for annual certification by the US President on India’s non-proliferation commitments and track record.

On the other side, some objectionable clauses still remained in the unified Bill, like the Iran issue, but these were not the ones India could not live with. That was mainly because these were not mandatory clauses.

The Government of India today called these clauses extraneous and prescriptive.

New Delhi felt that no legislation enacted in a foreign country could take away from it the sovereign right to conduct foreign policy determined solely by its national interests. External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee would make a statement in Parliament soon on the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Mr Burns, who today concluded his two-day discussions with Indian officials, said he would be surprised if China were to oppose the Indo-US nuke deal.

He said it was in the interest of China to see that India was in the centre of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime.

“China has to favour the constellation of forces supporting the non-proliferation”, he remarked.

In response to a question at the press conference, Mr Burns said he was in China three weeks back and had discussions with Chinese officials, but he was not told about Beijing’s opposition to the deal.

Chinese official news agency Xinhua yesterday accused the US of having double standards in context of the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Mr Burns added that there was strong support from Asia for the deal.

Mr Burns’ second significant remark pertained to the NSG, the 45-nation apex international body on nuclear issues.

He said a lot of NSG members were watching the Indo-US deal’s progress.

“You will now get to see a positive reaction from the NSG”, he remarked.

On the question of spent fuel usage by India, Mr Burns said it was India’s sovereign right to decide what to do with the spent fuel.

He was helpfully reminded that the text of the unified Bill was silent on the issue. Mr Burns said India would be welcome to the non-proliferation regime for the first time.

“We are that much close to the objective”, he said.

He expressed gratitude to the US Congress for reinforcing the agreement the US had made with India in civilian nuclear cooperation.