US State Dept silent on Bush memorandum controversy on N-fuel

Sridhar Krishnaswami
Washington, Sep 13 (PTI) The U.S. remained silent over the controversy in India triggered by President George W. Bush's assertions that nuclear fuel supply assurances to New Delhi were only political commitments and not legally binding.

"It's a letter from the President to the Congress, I'll refer you over to the White House for an answer," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Friday when queried about Bush's communication to the U.S. Congress on nuclear fuel supplies issue that has kicked up dust in India.


"...We've had good discussions with the Indian
government on this matter, the 123 agreement, as well as a
number of other issues. And we're going to be providing quite
a bit of information there. We have to the U.S. Congress. And
there's going to be testimony during that process. I'll let
that testimony and the information that we've provided the
Congress speak for itself," McCormack maintained.

In his message transmitting the 123 agreement to the U.S.
Congress for its approval, Bush had said " In Article 5(6),
the Agreement records certain political commitments concerning
reliable supply of the nuclear fuel given to India. The
agreement does not, however, transorm these political
commitments into legally binding commitments because the
Agreement, like other U.S. agreements of its type, is intended
as a framerwork agreement."

"If President Bush sends a letter, a cover letter on the
deal, and says something, is that binding on the deal? Like,
does it hold?" the spokesman was asked.

"It's all a matter of the public record," he replied.

Asked if the administration had a target date for
ratification of the nuclear deal, he said "we'd like it as
soon as possible".

The White House also did not have any comments on the
Bush communication with Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto not
addressing the issue aboard the Air Force One taking the
President to Oklahoma.

Asked whether the reference to "sensitive technologies"
in the President's letter referred to enrichment and
reprocessing technologies, McCormack said, "Again, the cover
letter speaks for itself. I'm not going to have anything to
add to it".

"I've heard a few different dates about when this session
of Congress will adjourn. And I think, if you talk to the
Hill, they'll talk about the end of September as being the
date they're going to adjourn. We'd obviously like to move
this forward as quickly as it possibly can," McCormack said.

Mccormack was also asked about the target adjournment
date of September 26 and the "Lame Duck" session, to which he
answered that the those questions were entirely for the
leadership of the Congress to address.

"The administration would like to see, and is doing
everything it possibly can, to get this agreement done this
year," he said.

Senior officials of the State Department like McCormack
have been reiterating all along that it is only Congress that
can spell out how the 30-day waiting period for the nuclear
deal is going to be addressed.

"... the Congress is really going to be in the best
position to talk about that," McCormack said referring to the
waiting period for the deal on Capitol Hill. (MORE) PTI SK
AMT
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