Once a fierce opponent to the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal inked during the previous Bush era, the Obama Administration's nuclear non-proliferation czar Ellen Tauscher is now in the forefront of US efforts to implement the landmark treaty between the two countries.
Tauscher, who now is leading US President Barack Obama's effort to have a nuclear weapons-free world and played a key role in this month's successful Nuclear Security Summit, said
Tuesday that her opposition to the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal is now a thing of the past.
The senior official, as a Democratic Congresswoman, had voted against the deal and in an op-ed in The New York Times had argued that it would kill the Nuclear-Nonproliferation
Treaty (NPT).
"Well, Congresswoman Tauscher and Under Secretary Tauscher act by the same body but not in the same time. What I did in the Congress was one thing. And I will remind you that the - what - the resolution that I opposed passed. And I get
quite used to accepting when things pass and letting them go on," Tauscher said when asked about the change in her stance on the Indo-US nuclear deal in less than two years.
"As Under Secretary, I obviously have some
responsibilities to implement the agreement between our two countries. And I'm very honoured to have been in India late last year, met with my counterpart, Foreign Secretary (Nirupama) Rao. You know, we have a very vibrant and very
significant relationship with India," Tauscher said.
"So I think that, generally I will quote the President on nuclear weapons. President Obama has an ambition for the world, that it will be a world free of nuclear weapons. We in the United States are taking our part."
The US has a Nuclear Posture Review where the role of nuclear weapons was diminished in force posture, Tauscher said, adding a new negative security assurance also makes it clear that non-nuclear-weapon states, which are in compliance
with their NPT obligations, would not be threatened or targeted.
"So I think that we here in the Obama Administration are very clear what our positions are. And what I did in the Congress is something in the past," she said while explaining
her new position.
Tauscher reiterated that the US would like all countries to sign the NPT, but avoided direct answer to questions related to India and Pakistan, which have opposed the NPT and have not signed it.
"We would like all countries to sign on to the NPT. We have a universality commitment," Tauscher said when asked if the US would like India and Pakistan to sign the NPT.
"The countries (India and Pakistan) that you mentioned are very special friends of the United States, and we have conversations with them every day about many different things.
But we have made our position clear about NPT," the Under Secretary said.