Opportunities provided by Indo-US nuke deal yet to be tapped: Condoleezza Rice

NEW DELHI: Former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, who was instrumental in concluding the historic India-US civilian nuclear deal five years ago, on Saturday lamented that the technological opportunities provided by the pact are yet to be tapped. Rice was the US secretary of state when the landmark deal was signed after months of intense negotiations amid stiff opposition from various political groups. However, India’s Civil Liability Nuclear Damage Act has delayed the entry of US suppliers. Both countries are now trying to bridge the differences through the rules of the Act by addressing the quantum of damages that a supplier is liable to if there is an accident.

While Rice did not directly refer to the delay caused in fructifying the deal, she expressed her disappointment. “The civil nuclear deal opened the way for extraordinary technological cooperation. I am not sure we could quickly take advantage of the opportunities of the technological cooperation it presented,” she noted at the session titled “USA and India: Building Stronger Ties” at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in Delhi. Pointing out that a lot of effort had been put in by both countries to clinch the deal, Rice said, “I hope, when we go back and think of how hard that was to make this deal possible [and] that we will work, [to] use the technological cooperation and opportunities,” she said.

While she came down on heavily on the cross-border terror from Pakistan, she sought to give Islamabad a chance to deal with terrorism. Pakistan is a country that turns a blind eye to groups within its borders who practise terrorism, she said, but hoped that their system can be mobilised to take action against terrorists with the right pressure and persuasion.