Congress clauses don’t mean much

The India-specific bill for cooperation in civilian nuclear energy that is to come up for approval in the US Congress House International Relations...

The India-specific bill for cooperation in civilian nuclear energy that is to come up for approval in the US Congress House International Relations Committee tomorrow may contain some non-binding conditions, like support for US policies on Iran, but the fact remains that this is not first time such conditions have been inserted for India.

In 1993, during the Clinton regime, some changes were incorporated in the Indo-US Foreign Relations Act to accommodate the Foreign Operations Export Financing legislation.

Some of the non-binding conditions included were:

• India should regionally negotiate a solution to nuclear proliferation in south Asia, with accession to the Non-Proliferation Treaty being the goal.

• A conference must be held to facilitate a nuclear weapons free zone in South Asia.

None of this happened, but that has not affected the Indo-US trade relationship. In fact, on the second condition, US, Russia, Pakistan and China had agreed to convene a conference that would have discussed the possibility of a NWZ in South Asia.

However, it was India that refused to attend and this issue has not progressed much since then.

Sources point out that adding recommendatory conditions to bills is a usual practice in the US Congress and India is no exception. In 1994-95, when the US amended its Foreign Relations Act with China to grant in the Most Favoured Nation Status, it couldn’t have ignored the Tiananmen Square issue.

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Some of the non-binding conditions added then were that China would:

• Respect human rights

• Ensure humane treatment to political prisoners

• Protect Tibet’s cultural heritage

• Allow free radio broadcast

• Adhere to Missile Technology Control Regime

All this was buttressed by a Senate resolution that stated that the US will ensure high-level diplomatic exchanges to see to the implementation of these goals.

However, much of this was never adhered to by China but that did not adversely impact its privileged trade status.

Besides this, the US Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act talks about such recommendatory provisions to strengthen US non-proliferation objectives. Also, there is Section 201 of the same Act that talks about US working towards a global safeguards agreement. These, sources said, are desirables, attempts made by Congress to tie the US administration to a position.

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Even in the specific provisions to assist Pakistan in 2003 and also last year, Washington laid out a string of conditions on bringing Islamabad on track to democracy. Pakistan continues to dodge international pressure on the issue but that has not affected a favourable policy from the US.