Transcripts of a Press Interview of Assistant Scretary Richard Boucher given to 'DNA' released by the U.S. Embassy, New Delhi.
QUESTION: What's with the deal?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOUCHER: The deal? The nuclear deal? Yes, we are working it. We have a number of things that have to be done to get this deal through. We had to get legislation in the United States and we got that with a very, very strong majority. We have to negotiate a bilateral agreement with India. India has to negotiate an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency. We have to get approval from the Nuclear Suppliers Group and because of our Congress we have to go back to them and get final approval once more. So there is a lot to do and we are trying to do this as quickly as possible.
We knew it would take time, but we still want to do it quickly. Right now we are on that second stage, trying to negotiate the bilateral agreement with India. We've presented drafts - we presented a draft last July, a counter-draft in February. We've had a couple of rounds of talks, including one last week, on the 123. Frankly, I don't know what is happening between India and the IAEA right now. We can't do much with Nuclear Suppliers until we get these other pieces together, so that's kind of slow. Concentration right now is on the 123. We have presented elements and proposals that we think are very consistent, in fact drawn directly from what the Prime Minister and the President discussed. We are looking to engage with India on that basis.
Right now the ball is sort of in the Indian court. We have replied to their draft and have told them where we think we have to make progress and we are looking to hear from India with that soon. I had some discussions in Delhi, Under Secretary Burns has had some discussion with Foreign Secretary Menon, and we'll keep in touch and see what we hear from the Indian side and see if we can move forward quickly.
QUESTION: What we have seen so far, where the deal is concerned, is that at every stage there have been apprehensions on both sides. On the Indian side, at least, there is always the feeling that we are being pushed into a situation where we won't be able to test any more, and then somehow that next stage gets crossed. There was once almost fear that it wouldn't get bipartisan support and it did. At this stage everyone is saying that what America is proposing will really effectively stop us from testing ever again.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOUCHER: You know, we've climbed a lot of mountains already; we have negotiated a lot of these issues already. We knew each others' background and we knew each others' laws before we even started. We knew that both sides had certain constraints. India wasn't going to join the Nonproliferation Treaty, the U.S. had a whole body of economic, (inaudible) and Atomic Energy Act kind of constraints on how we cooperate with other countries. So with those two situations, how do we find an area of cooperation? We did a lot of big things -- both countries did, both leaders did -- to get to the point where we had an understanding. And then we negotiated for another nine months or so to get to the point where we had a more specific agreement on the Indian separation plan, on how to do this.
So we've climbed a lot of really tough mountains already. We have done a lot of the basic negotiation already. We knew where we came from - that hasn't changed. Neither of us has changed, our law hasn't changed, India's refusal to join the Nonproliferation Treaty hasn't changed. But we keep finding how to sort of (inaudible) the center and come together. So I think if we continue on that basis, if we take all that we've done and all that we knew and then keep working the different pieces together, we'll get there.
Detonation is not a new issue. It's been with us ever since the beginning. It's been in U.S. law since before we started. So it's not a surprise. It's an issue that we'll have to talk about and figure out how to deal with the question. But it's not something that we've inserted at the last minute. It's something that has been around from the beginning.
QUESTION: So you're banking on the ingenuity of both sides to eventually find a [inaudible]?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOUCHER: I am banking on the fact that the President and the Prime Minister told us to do this. They want to do it. We have to figure out how.
QUESTION: You're sitting there in your office, you are looking at this part of the world, etc. You talk about the problems and the hopes and everything. You also see a lot of strife with this region, strife which is actually quite old, when you come to think about it. Sri Lanka