JOIN USIn his farewell remarks on the last day of his two years in office here, Roemer also expressed hope that the 2008 India-US civil nuclear deal will move forward positively with New Delhi’s commitment to ratify the Convention on Supplementary Compensation (CSC) for nuclear damage.
Roemer, who had resigned from his diplomatic responsibilities in April, also described “pat downs” at airports and criminal charges against Indian diplomats in America as “occasional hiccups” in the otherwise “positive stories” in the bilateral relationship between the two countries.
“I want to say that the US and the Obama Administration strongly and vehemently support the clean waiver for India. The 123 civil nuclear legislation underscores our support for India in this debate that is going on and our law also points to the clean waiver for India,” he said.
Roemer’s remarks came just ahead of his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and after his recent visit to Washington where he discussed issues relating to taking forward nuclear trade between the two countries.
“Our law clearly points to the clean waiver for India. So the president firmly supports it, the 123 agreement firmly supports it and our law firmly commits us to it,” Roemer said.
“So with India’s commitment as they move forward to ratify the CSC and they work more closely with the US companies, I think you will see this civil nuclear agreement hopefully”.
Only a week ago, the 46-nation nuclear trade cartel, at its meeting in the Netherlands, decided to tighten regulations for the export of sensitive enrichment and reprocessing technologies that was seen by some in India as being against the spirit of the 2008 clean waiver given to it to carry on nuclear commerce with the NSG members.
On the row over “pat down” security checks and criminal cases against Indian diplomats in the US, Roemer said the two countries were working out ways for smooth visits by important people to both countries that go on without incidents.