U.S.-Indian Nuclear Deal Stalls in Senate

The U.S. Senate failed to vote on enabling legislation for the U.S.-Indian nuclear technology sharing deal last week before recessing until after the Nov. 7 midterm elections, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Sept. 15).

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) blamed the delay on Democrats, who he said loaded the legislation with “unnecessary amendments.”

“Republicans were prepared to pass the legislation without amendment or debate and the Democrats objected,” he said in a prepared statement.

House lawmakers in July approved legislation that would allow the deal to go through (see GSN, July 27). 

In return for access to U.S. nuclear technology and material, New Delhi would open its civilian nuclear facilities to international monitoring.

Congress must back the final deal.  Approval from the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the 45-nation body that sets nuclear trade guidelines, is also necessary (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Sept. 30).

Indian officials expressed hope that the Senate would act on the deal during its “lame duck” session after the election, Reuters reported yesterday.

“The bill actually enjoys bipartisan support and it is our hope that this will find a way through U.S. domestic legal procedures as soon as possible,” said Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon.

“There is little we can do now but wait,” one Indian official told Reuters.  “Whether the bipartisan support is real of whether all the delays were a ploy to camouflage the opposition to the deal by supporters of nonproliferation will be known in the coming months.”

Even with Senate approval of the enabling legislation this fall, final decisions on the deal would likely occur next year.  If the Senate fails to act on the bill, the process would begin at the start next year, possibly with a reconfigured Congress.

“This is a significant setback, especially if the balance of power shifts after the elections from the Republicans to the Democrats,” said Harsh Pant, who teaches defense studies at King’s College in London.

“The U.S.-India deal may just become one of [the election’s] casualties,” he said (Y.P. Rajesh, Reuters/Washington Post, Oct. 2).

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