WASHINGTON - A key committee on Tuesday took the first step toward approval by the U.S. Congress of a nuclear cooperation deal with India that lawmakers said would promote historic new ties between the two democracies.
After months of delay during which the deal was mired in controversy, the House of Representatives International Relations Committee voted 37 to 5 to make changes in U.S. law that would allow the agreement to proceed.
The full House is to take up the issue next month but Republican Chairman Henry Hyde of Illinois said final passage is not assured and the Bush administration must pay close attention to congressional concerns if it wants to prevail.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is to act on its own separate legislation on Thursday. The two versions, once passed by their respective chambers, would have to be reconciled and then subjected to a final vote. Whether Congress has time to complete action this year is a question.
The deal, granting nuclear-armed India access to U.S. nuclear fuel and reactors for the first time in 30 years, was agreed in principle by President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last July 18.
Many non-proliferation experts are concerned the deal would allow India to increase nuclear weapons production, but the committee soundly rejected two amendments seeking to force New Delhi to halt fissile material production.
Rep. Tom Lantos, a California Democrat who co-sponsored the bill with Hyde, said "the impact of this legislation on the new geo-strategic alignment between India and the United States for the balance of the 21st century ... cannot be overstated."
"This is a defining moment in our relationship with the great nation of India," he said.,
Arms Race Risk?
But Republican Rep. Jim Leach of Iowa said the deal "undercuts the most serious arms control treaty ever negotiated" -- the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty -- and other critics predicted the deal would spur an arms race with Pakistan and China and maybe other countries as well.
The legislation adopted by the committee makes some changes in a bill proposed earlier by the Bush administration, including setting up a two-step voting process.
The second vote would come after a formal U.S.-India peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement is negotiated and after India and the International Atomic Energy Agency agree on a regime for inspecting India's civilian nuclear facilities.
Darryl Kimball of the Arms Control Association, a leading critic of the deal, called the changes more procedural than substantive.
"It is very disappointing that the committee did not stand up to the administration and protect core non-proliferation values and objectives," he told Reuters.
"It is a sad day when some members of Congress are more interested in the next campaign contribution from an important lobby than in upholding key U.S. security goals," he said.
A new report by the Congressional Research Service, which conducts non-partisan analyses for Congress, concluded the deal would likely result in indirect assistance to India's nuclear weapons program, which could violate U.S. NPT commitments.
Critics have long argued that letting India import uranium for civilian reactors will free up its domestic uranium stocks for use in weapons production.
An amendment requiring India to freeze domestic uranium production for its weapons programs as a condition of the U.S. nuclear cooperation deal was defeated.
But the panel accepted a less restrictive amendment, saying Washington should "encourage" India not to increase fissile material production and requiring a presidential report to Congress on steps taken to ensure U.S. nuclear assistance does not assist India's weapons programs.
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