The United States said there is good bipartisan support for the process of ratifying the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement.
Calling the agreement "an important" one, White House Spokesman Scott McClellan on Saturday said that the Bush administration looked forward to continuing to work with Congress, to answer their questions, hearing any issues that they might want to bring up and talking to them about the importance of this agreement."
"The agreement goes to build our strategic relationship to ensure energy security for India as well as the United States. It would also, for the first time, bring India's civilian nuclear programme under international safeguards, which is an important development," he said.
He mentioned that US President George W Bush has earlier noted that India was not a country that was engaged in proliferation. They had a good nonproliferation record. And we had to look at the reality of the situation."
In this context, Mc Clellan also mentioned how the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Senator Joseph Biden and Senator Barack Obama (Democra, Illinois) and others have expressed willingness to "support this agreement, because they recognise the importance of moving forward on it to both our energy and national security interests."
He added that besides this, President Bush in his meetings with the lawmakers at the White House, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, have also been working very closely with members of Congress, to garner as much support as possible for the deal.
He added that besides this, President Bush in his meetings with the lawmakers at the White House, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, have also been working very closely with members of Congress, to garner as much support as possible for the deal.