A visit dubbed as a courtesy call by the French ambassador to CPI(M) patriarch Jyoti Basu in Kolkata has evoked sharp reactions from the US, after reports that the France had proposed a strategic partnership with India on civil nuclear energy besides other areas.

Asking the Indian government to take a "courageous" decision on the civil nuclear deal considering the "short timelines", the Bush administration has cautioned it against attempting such an arrangement with 'other nations' ignoring the US.

The US sounded the alarm bell after the speculation that the French Ambassador to India Jerome Bonnafont had offered a nuclear deal without any strings attached, unlike the US Hyde Act. 

 "We now are in the vanguard. We're the leading country that will support the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in making an international case that all nations should engage in nuclear trade with India. That cannot happen without the US, because that NSG, of which we are a leading member, has to decide by a consensus," the top US negotiator for the deal Nicholas Burns said on Friday (February 29).
 
In a carefully worded statement, Burns said: "The Indian Government is not suggesting this, but in your worst-case scenario, if there was an attempt to say 'well, we're going to forget about the deal with the US, but go forward', it couldn't happen, because the NSG wouldn't make the decision in that case," Burns, who is the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, said responding to a question.

Amid reports that New Delhi could abandon the US deal to engage in civil nuclear trade with other nations such as France, Burns maintained it was "impossible" because what has to happen has to happen in Washington.

"Timeline is short"

Stressing that the timelines were "short" to firm up the deal, Burns said: "I think the Indian Government is quite sincere in wanting to push this agreement forward. There's obviously a question of politics within the Indian Coalition, and we don't want to interfere in internal affairs to the coalition in India."

"But we do know this, as Senator (Joseph) Biden said last week and I think as Secretary Gates said when he was in India two days ago: time is very short," Biden said.

The top US official said: "Senator Biden had explained that for the US Congress to make a final vote on this issue in 2008, the entire agreement must land on the doorstep of the Congress by May or June of this year.

"If you back up from there, that means that the IAEA agreement must be made within a week or two, and it means the NSG would have to begin acting in the month of March. So there are very short timelines here, and I'm afraid it's time for the government to decide," he said.

Stating that the deal was "in the interest of both the US and India" and that it enjoyed "strong support from Russia, from France, and even from the Chinese Government", Burns said "if India is to be given this great victory,.. there has to be a courageous decision made by the government to move forward. We hope that decision will be positive".

A "trusting" relationship

At a briefing at the Washington Press Centre, Burns highlighted the role of United States in "bringing India out of nuclear isolation".

"India has not been able to trade in civil nuclear fuel or nuclear reactor technology for well over 35 years because of international sanctions against India, because of the activities that caused the beginning of the Indian nuclear programme in the 1970s," Burns said.

"The United States now for the last three years has led the way to say: 'let's bring India out of its nuclear isolation.' We were able to convince Congress to pass an American law that would allow American companies to trade with India for the first time since the 1970s," he said.

Burns also lauded the strong bilateral relationship between India and US saying the "new strategic partnership with the Indian Government and the Indian people" had the "potential to be one of the most significant advances for America's foreign policy in this era.

"We have been a very good friend and partner of India all along through these incredibly intense and complex three years of negotiations, and I've been in every meeting. So I have a sense of what it was like. What's emerged from those negotiations is a relationship between New Delhi and
Washington, which is quite close, very trusting," he said.

In his brief opening statement Burns, who will step down as a foreign service officer by March end but would continue as a special envoy, said "it's a very important agreement for both of our countries. We've done a lot of work on it. We've negotiated for three years. Many parts of that
agreement have been now concluded between India and the US.

"I know that the Indian Government is just about to conclude the IAEA safeguards negotiations with Dr ElBaradei and his team in Vienna. And then after that, if the Indian Government can proceed -- and that's a question for the Indian Government -- then we'll take it to the NSG, and I'm confident that the NSG will ultimately vote to accept India, and then a final vote in the United States Congress," Burns said.

The US Under Secretary also said that the deal had become "a symbolic centerpiece of the US-India relationship".

Elaborating on the cooperation in other areas, Burns said: "We have greatly expanded our relations with India in agriculture, in the sciences, in education, in civil nuclear power."

Burns said: "We have become partners in South Asia. We work very closely with India, for instance, in trying to encourage a peaceful transition in Nepal. We work very closely with India on the question of Sri Lanka"