Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said yesterday he expects that the United States will move soon to enact its civilian nuclear deal with his nation, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported (see GSN, Nov. 24).
Singh and U.S. President Barack Obama met yesterday at the White House for discussions on mattes including implementation of the nuclear cooperation agreement that was signed in 2005 by the Indian leader and then-U.S. President George W. Bush.
The agreement would allow New Delhi to receive nuclear technology and materials from the United States in exchange for allowing international monitoring of its civilian nuclear industry. However, a number of technical issues have prevented the deal from taking effect, including the demand for an agreement limiting the liability of U.S. firms that could be involved in nuclear energy work in India.
"We had a very constructive exchange of views on strategic issues. Our defense cooperation is progressing well," Singh said at a joint press conference with Obama. "We agreed on the early and full implementation of our civil nuclear cooperation agreement."
Obama also expressed his commitment to the trade deal with India, which possesses nuclear weapons and remains outside of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. He said that the relationship between Washington and New Delhi "will be one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century" (Andrew Tully, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Nov. 24).
Singh said he expected that Obama would "operationalize the nuclear deal as early as possible," Agence France-Presse reported.
"There are a few 'i's and 't's that have to be crossed," Singh said. "I am confident and I have the assurance that that process can be completed without much further loss of time."
The nuclear agreement has faced objections from some members of Obama's own Democratic Party who contend that it would set a bad precedent for global nonproliferation (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Nov. 24).
The two leaders released a joint statement yesterday saying that they had "reaffirmed their shared vision of a world free of nuclear weapons and pledged to work together, as leaders of responsible states with advanced nuclear technology, for global nonproliferation and universal, nondiscriminatory and complete nuclear disarmament."
This goal requires that they work together to make sure that all counties are adhering to their international obligations, according to the statement.
Obama and Singh have promised to confer with each other regularly and to work toward a quick beginning of negotiations on a fissile material cutoff treaty, which would outlaw the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons (White House release, Nov. 24).