President George W Bush met the Congressional leadership of key committees of both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate on Tuesday afternoon at the White House to brief them about his visit to South Asia last week and seek their support for the US-India civilian nuclear agreement.
Complete Coverage: President Bush in India
Among the select group invited to the White House were Senator Richard Lugar, Indiana Republican and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee; Pete Domenici, New Mexico Republican and chairman of the Appropriations Committee; and the co-chairs of the Friends of India Caucus in the Senate, Senators John Cornyn, Texas Republican and Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat.
From the House side, the invitees included, Congressmen Tom Lantos, California Democrat and the ranking minority member of the International Relations Committee; Duncan Hunter, California Republican and chairman of the Armed Services Committee; John Kolbe, Arizona Republican, and chairman of the Appropriations Committee; David Obey, Wisconsin Democrat, and ranking minority member of the Appropriations Committee; Ike Skelton, Missouri Democrat, and ranking minority member of the Armed Services Committee; and the co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, Gary Ackerman, New York Democrat and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Florida Republican.
Complete Coverage: Indo-US Nuclear Tango
Ackerman and Ros-Lehtinen are also senior members of the International Relations Committee.
These lawmakers are the most influential players in these committees that are vital for the nuclear deal to make any progress in the Congress, which has to either amend or change US laws like the US Nonproliferation Act if the deal is to be implemented and if India has to be eligible for civilian nuclear reactors and other sophisticated nuclear technology and fuel.
With Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and the chief US interlocutor in the negotiations Nicholas Burns by his side, Bush briefed them about his visits to both India and Pakistan and his meetings with Dr Singh and President Pervez Musharraf. He then told lawmakers that he needed their help in Congress to see the deal through.
Without N-deal, nothing spectacular about Bush visit
Ackerman told rediff India Abroad that he believed the President saying that he needed the help of Congress to consummate the deal was an understatement, and recalled that he had told Bush, "I was actually in favor of the deal. If you think it was difficult negotiating with the Indian side, wait till you come on the Hill with that (agreement)."
He said, "Bush wanted to know from them what the main concerns on the Hill were and I told him that the main difficulty was that this is the first time some people are going to tell us that we are thrashing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and also that if we could do this and give some slack with someone who really deserves this (India), there still would be the arguments that this would embolden the Chinese to say that they would like to have a similar deal with Pakistan and build civilian power plants for that country."
'Bush is one of the strongest friends of India'
Apparently, Hunter, who is leading the revolt in the House against the administration's decision to hand over the operations of six US ports to Dubai and has gone on record expressing much skepticism about the US-India nuclear deal, has raised concerns in the strongest terms with the President, while Ros-Lehtinen had also informed Bush of the serious concerns she was hearing from the Republican leadership in the International Relations Committee.
Hunter, appearing on the ABC's This Week talk show on Sunday, said about the agreement reached in New Delhi over India civil-military nuclear facilities separation plan, 'These are big numbers here--14 and 22.'
He said that only 14 nuclear reactors will be monitored by international inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency while eight of them, which can produce weapons material - nuclear weapons material - will not be monitored.'
'Bush snatched bread from our mouth'
Hunter said, 'The President is trying to ride the nuclear tiger here. It is a tough job. I think we really need to look at this one and I am inclined to think that the problem...that this type of thing is not good for us because the problem is that this nuclear development and weapons development is a function of equipment, and it is also a function of people.'
'As India continues to develop a pool of technicians and scientists who have the capability to work in the nuclear arena, those people can quickly move their talents from domestic energy production to weapons production. So this thing has to be looked at very, very carefully. I'm skeptical,' he argued.
On the same program, Senator Susan Collins, Maine Republican, who is the chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee also said that she needs to look carefully at the deal. "We need to make sure there are sufficient safeguards," she said.
'India is an important player in its own right'
Collins declared, "In general, I am leery whenever we put any kind of nuclear capabilities off-limits to international inspections."
Ackerman said that none of the lawmakers invited for the briefing by the President was 'really negative,' but there were these serious concerns being raised. He said the President had not tried to counter any of these arguments and he mainly listened.
"This was not something he can argue with because these are the concerns that are circulating on the Hill," Ackerman added.
'This is a big step we are taking': Senator Kerry
He also disclosed that some of the lawmakers had asked Bush if India had given any iron-clad commitments that it will continue to be unambiguously in Washington's corner in the European Union and the US-led efforts to isolate Iran for violating its nonproliferation treaty obligations, and also that India will not go ahead with the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.
According to Ackerman, Bush had said that India had not given any such commitment but that he had brought up this matter among other issues with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
