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US Govt to work to achieve further progress on Indo-US deal

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New Delhi, Nov. 17, IRNA
India-US-Deal
The United States Friday said that the passage of Indo-US nuclear deal bill by the Senate showed that the agreement has in principle been maintained and voiced confidence that the administration will do its best to achieve further progress keeping in mind New Delhi's sensitivities.

"...It is clear to us that the result is very favourbale and that the agreement has in principle been maintained," US Ambassador here David C Mulford told an Indian private news channel "NDTV" after the Senate approved the measure by an overwhelming majority.

"Well, I am not surprised that the bill was overwhelmingly supported by both parties. The vote is a little bit larger that I thought of what might be but certainly we expected to achieve an overwhelming bipartisan support for this bill," he said.

Observing that the `killer amendments' were defeated in the Senate, Mulford said the bill will now go to the Congress to be reconciled with the version passed earlier by the House of Representatives.

"Both bills fall within the parametres, within the spheres...of the agreement between the two Governments. I don't think there is any doubt in our mind but we know there are sensitivities in India on some of the issues and in particular things like reporting requirements.

"And what I want to do is to assure everybody that the administration will continue to work these issues through the conference in an attempt to making further progress and resolving the issues that are outstanding," he said, adding that he was clear that the result "is very favourable".

Asked if he was worried that India's `objections' on certain issues will be dropped during the reconciliation process, Mulford said "well, the administration will do its best to work on the provisions but I think it is important to keep in mind that both bills are first of all relatively similar and not relatively different".

Contending that the points of difference were "modest", the US envoy said he was of the view that the issues involved could be resolved.

"This is normal in the process of legislation in the US system," he added.

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