Fuel supplies will be governed by 123 agreement: US

NEW DELHI: Amid a controversy over a State Department letter, the US today said the fuel supplies to India will be governed by the 123 agreement even as it insisted that there was nothing in the letter that is "unknown" to New Delhi.

US Ambassador David C Mulford insisted that there was "no discrepancy" between the 123 agreement and the views expressed by the Bush administration in the letter to Howard Berman, Chairman of House Foreign Affairs Committee, in which the State Department said the assurance of fuel supplies was not to insulate India against consequences of a nuclear test.

"There is nothing new (in the letter) that Government of India did not know. The content in the material was known. The content is what we have discussed (with India)," the US Ambassador said, insisting that there is "no discrepancy" in the letter.

He said the fuel supplies will be governed by the 123 agreement. New Delhi is agitated over the contents of the letter, saying it gives an impression that the Bush administration is interpreting the 123 agreement differently as the pact makes it clear that the US will ensure uninterrupted supplies.

"It is a straight forward issue... the fuel assurances are contained in the language of the 123 agreement and the discussions that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George W Bush had in March 2006," Mulford said.
"These are the fuel assurances, there is no other fuel assurance," he said, adding "Whatever are the fuel assurances in the civilian nuclear cooperation will be governed by the 123 bilateral agreement."