IANH Legislative Action Request US-India Civilian Nuclear Deal

Dear Members:

 

Senate Foreign Relations committee will be holding a hearing on US-India Civilian Nuclear Agreement  in the coming days.  We believe that this agreement will strengthen the ties between our two countries, and change the negative tone towards India within United States. Successful outcome from this hearing will set the tone for future voting in the Senate. 

Senator Sununu of New Hampshire is a well respected member of Senate Foreign relations committee. Please call Senator Sununu's office or send an email to ask him that you would like him to support S 2429 "US-India Civilian Nuclear Agreement". Information on how to contact Senator Sununu by phone or email is given below. A sample letter you could email is also given at the bottom of this message.

The next two-three weeks are going to be crucial. PLEASE ACT NOW. If you do contact Senator Sununu's office, we would appreciate if you would let us know about it.
 

Himanshu Desai
Public Relations Chair, IANH
(603) 494-6503
PublicRelations@ianh.org

http://www.ianh.org
_________________________________________________

VERY IMPORTANT, please forward this message to all your colleagues, friends and relations living in the United States. If you are connected to an organization, you are welcome to forward this message to all your members.


To call Senator Sununu's office: 

Manchester office:  (603) 647-7500 

Washington D.C. office: (202) 224-2841

First introduce yourself by giving your name and town of residence. Tell the staff member that you are calling the Senator to ask for his support for "US-India Civilian Nuclear Agreement" legislation pending in Senate Foreign relations committee.  You can also add by using some of the key points as to why you want him to support the issues using some of the points highlighted in following sample letter.

 

To send Email to Senator Sununu

Please click here:  http://www.sununu.senate.gov/webform.html

First fill out all the personal information fields in the beginning.  Select the Topic "OTHERS".  Then you can copy the sample letter below in to the message box.  You can also edit the letter after you copy into the box. 

 

'SAMPLE LETTER'

Dear Honorable ______:

I write to you today to ask your support for President George W. Bush’s initiative for separation of India's civilian and strategic nuclear assets. True, the President expects that this will lead to the conditions necessary for legislation to enable the US to sell nuclear materials and technology to India, but let us not lose sight of the enormous benefits of the first sentence – the separation of India's civilian and strategic nuclear assets; let us not lose sight of the attendant benefits to America – which is the focus of today’s letter.

What are the benefits to the United States and the international community?

  1. More oversight than ever before: As Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nick Burns stated, because of this agreement, India will "open up a majority of its nuclear power reactors and its associated nuclear facilities to permanent IAEA -- International Atomic Energy Agency -- safeguards. … Since the establishment of the Indian nuclear program in 1974, there has been no international oversight, and now the majority of India's program will be under supervision of the International Agency."
  2. New nonproliferation obligations: "India, for the very first time in 30 years, has accepted new nonproliferation obligations. It has now passed a national export control law, which will bring its legal requirements into international conformance. It has committed to refrain from transferring any of its nuclear technologies. It has reasserted its commitment to maintain a unilateral moratorium of nuclear testing, and it has agreed to work with the United States towards a fissile material cutoff treaty. These are gains that were not possible during any time over the last 30 years; they are made possible by this agreement."
  3. International support: At a time when the United States faces increasing isolation from the international community on important matters, this is a chance to be one with our allies. "Dr. El Baradei, the Chairman and the Nobel laureate of the IAEA, has indicated that he is in support of this deal. … A number of our allies in Europe, the Russian government, have all said that they would favor this initiative. So we do expect broad-scale international support."
  4. The Democracy Dividend: For decades, the U.S. has supported the concept of democracy and its spread all over the world. India is the world’s largest democracy and is the only large vibrant multiethnic democracy in that part of the world. This is an incredible opportunity to ‘put our support where our mouth is.’ It is worth pointing out that India had nuclear weapons for almost 25 years when Pakistan did not; it fought two wars with Pakistan, and never once used them nor threatened to use them. This shows incredibly responsible behavior and here is an opportunity to show that we respect and reward such behavior.
  5. Strategic Partnership: India needs a Strategic Partner in that part of the world. Who else shares our values in that part of the world? Would it be good strategy to align ourselves with totalitarian regimes, dictatorships, potential theocracies, breeding grounds for terrorism, or with the world’s largest democracy?
  6. Commercial benefits: India is a rapidly growing economy. The middle class of India is estimated to be 300 million people; greater than the size of the U.S. population. It makes good practical sense to open this market to American business. It is a vibrant industrial and business economy, where the language of the courts, commerce, and government is English.
  7. Energy: China and India, in their race for a place in world commercial markets, will increase tremendously the demand for energy. They are, of necessity, being forced to make deals with countries less than friendly to the United States, because energy is a critical part of their future and success. Their increasing demand for energy impacts us directly because of supply and price considerations. Assisting India in the peaceful development of nuclear energy increases their supply, and so reduces their international demand. This, in turn, yields a clear and distinct benefit to the United States’ international supply of energy and the price at which we can buy it.

For these reasons and others, my respectful but firm request to you is to side with President Bush and approve his nuclear initiative for separation of India's civilian and strategic nuclear assets.

Sincerely,

 

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