Indo-US nuclear deal: And it's done...

02 October 2008

Washington: The much touted Indo-US strategic partnership received its greatest affirmation yet when the US Congress gave the 123 Agreement, which guides the outlines of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, its seal of approval. The US Senate voted 86-13 in favour of the 123Agreement, overturning a ''killer amendment'' in the process, and opened a new chapter of cooperation with India.

The Senate vote, which comes a week after the Bill was cleared by the House of Representatives, provides final approval to a breakthrough agreement which hauls India out of the nuclear doghouse and permits civilian nuclear trade between the two countries for the first time in 34 years.

The Senate vote also marks a rare foreign policy victory for President George W Bush in the the very last days of his presidency. The country goes to polls to elect a new president in November of this year.

President Bush may well look upon this agreement as the one worthwhile achievement in a tenure of eight years that has undergone a great deal of controversy.

He has already received handsome compliments from the Indian prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh for his historic initiative. On his recent visit to the United States, when he was expecting to sign the deal  if it had been cleared by the US Congress, Dr Singh said of president Bush that history would record his achievement in getting this deal through.

"When history is written," Dr Singh said last week in the Oval Office, "I think it will be recorded that President George W Bush achieved an historic goal in bringing our two democracies closer to each other."