Asserting that that there are "no open issues" on the nuclear deal, the US President George W Bush will sign the legislation on the Indo-US nuclear deal, approved by the Congress, into a law on Wednesday.
Bush will sign the Bill H R 7081, named after Howard Berman, a Democrat who was strongly opposed to the deal on non-proliferation grounds but was brought around to accept it recently, on 8th October at the White House.
"The President will sign the legislation (passed by the US Congress) very soon. He wants to do it very soon. There are administrative reasons," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a press conference after talks with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
The bill once passed has to be transmitted to the White House.
It has been a busy time for last several weeks, she said explaining the reasons for the delay in signing the legislation by Bush.
Rice's visit coming shortly after the Congress approval of the legislation sparked speculation that the 123 would come up for signing with Mukherjee today.
In fact, she had rescheduled the visit by a couple of days.
"The President is looking forward to signing it very soon. The Hyde Act is completely consistent with 123 agreement....123 agreement is consistent with the Hyde Act. The US will keep its commitments to both," she said in reply to a question why there has been a delay and whether there were concerns on the Indian side.
"We don't have open issues," Rice said adding it was a matter of administrative and procedural details which would be worked out.
In his reply Mukherjee said once the President signs it into law and the process is complete "we will be in a position to sign the agreement on a mutually convenient date.
"I hope it will be signed shortly."
In their opening remarks at the joint press conference, both the leaders expressed satisfaction over their talks and the state of bilateral relations between the two countries.
"India-US relations are today better than ever before and have transformed into a truly strategic partnership," Mukherjee said.
Reciprocating his feelings, Rice said the two countries were executing the vision of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Bush for closer and deeper relations between the two countries.
"The civil nuclear initiative is a historic agreement and historic achievement. The US will stand by its commitments," she said adding the US cooperated with India in the IAEA in view of its track record in non-proliferation.
"It gives us a new platform for cooperation in energy matters to develop civil nuclear power. We have opened new channels with India in areas of technology, agriculture, education and defence cooperation."
She said it was now now one of the broadest relations US enjoyed with India.
She also hoped that whoever succeeds Bush as President (after the November elections) would continue to build on the "strongest relationship" that the two leaders initiated in 2005.
Mukherjee said India-US relationship today had more than bilateral significance and the two countries were working together on a wide range issues including climate change and on UN Security Council.
He said the vision of this relationship chalked out by Singh and Bush would serve the interest of not not only India but the people of the region and the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment