Chronology of US-India civil nuclear pact

LAHORE: The US-India Civil Nuclear Agreement was inked on July 18, 2005 between the then Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and American President George W. Bush in Washington DC.
This was done nine months before the March 1, 2006 visit of President Bush to India.
According to the office of the then US Press Secretary, India had agreed under this pact to separate its civil and military nuclear facilities and to place all its civil nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. In exchange, the United States had agreed to work toward full civil nuclear cooperation with India.
On July 26, 2006, the US House of Representatives had passed the “Henry J. Hyde United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act of 2006,” which stipulated that Washington would cooperate with New Delhi on nuclear issues and exempt it from signing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
On November 16, 2006, the US Senate had passed the “United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation and US Additional Protocol Implementation Act” to exempt the United States for exporting nuclear materials, equipment and technology to India. The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 had placed certain bars on the US, which were now removed.
On December 18, 2006, President Bush had signed into law the Congressional legislation on Indian atomic energy.
On July 27, 2007, negotiations on a bilateral agreement between the United States and India was concluded.
On August 3, 2007, the text of the ‘Agreement for Cooperation between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of India concerning peaceful uses of nuclear energy’ (123 Agreement) was released by both governments.
On August 13, 2007, the then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had opted to make a statement on the deal in Parliament.
Between February and March 2008, some leftist political parties in India said that their rulers would have to choose between the deal and the government’s stability. These political parties had warned the incumbent Indian regime of serious consequences if the nuclear accord with US was operationalised. They urged Dr. Manmohan Singh to drop the deal.
On July 8, 2008, the Leftist parties in India had withdrawn their support to government, though a lot of efforts were made by the sitting regime to convince the opposition.
On July 10, 2008, the then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had called for a vote of confidence in Parliament.
On July 22, 2008, Manmohan Singh had won the trust vote in the parliament after promising that the country’s autonomy would not be compromised as a result of the civil-nuclear deal with the United States.
On July 24, 2008, India had dismissed Pakistan’s warning that the deal would trigger an atomic arms race in the region.
On July 25, 2008, the International Atomic Energy Agency secretariat had briefed member states on India-specific safeguards agreement.
On August 18, 2008 the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors had approved the deal to the sheer dismay of Pakistan especially.
(References: The International Atomic Energy Agency website and the International Herald Tribune)
On September 11, 2008, President Bush had sent the text of the agreement to the US Congress for final approval.
On September 12, 2008, a controversy had surfaced in India following President Bush’s assertions that nuclear fuel supply assurances to New Delhi under the deal were only political commitments and not legally binding in any way.
On September 18, 2008, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee had kicked off a crucial hearing on the Indo-US nuclear deal.
On September 26, 2008, Dr. Manmohan Singh had met President Bush at the White House, but the US head of state was not able to sign the nuclear deal as the Congress had not approved it.
(References: the Times of India, the rediff.com and The Hindu)
On September 27, 2008, the US House of Representatives had approved the Indo-US nuclear deal. While 298 members had voted for the Bill, 117 had voted against it.
On October 1, 2008, the US Senate had approved the Indo-US civil nuclear deal with 86 votes for and 13 against.
On October 4, 2008, the then US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had visited Delhi. India and the US were still unable to ink the agreement with New Delhi insisting that it would do so only after President Bush signed it into a law.
On Oct 8, 2008, President Bush had signed the legislation.
On February 2, 2009, India had finally signed an India-specific safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
(References: The Australian, the Moscow Times, the Washington Post, the Hindustan Times, the CNN, the Gulf Times, the AFP and the Reuters)