VOA常速英语2008年-US Senators Deliver Deadline to India on Nuclea

By Steve Herman
New Delhi
20 February 2008

Three leading U.S. senators have told India's prime minister his government has only weeks to finalize¹ a civilian² nuclear deal with the United States or senators in Washington will not have time to ratify³ the agreement. It is the strongest and most specific warning India has received that time is running out for it to decide the fate of the controversial deal. VOA Correspondent Steve Herman reports from New Delhi.

Between visits to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Senators John Kerry, Joe Biden and Chuck Hagel stopped in New Delhi to tell Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that little time remains⁴ to conclude the civilian nuclear-fuel agreement between the United States and India.

India remains locked in talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which needs to approve a safeguards agreement for the deal to go through. India also must obtain a waiver from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group before the pact⁵ can go to the U.S. Senate for an up-or-down vote. The group oversees⁶ the export and re-transfer of nuclear materials.

Senator Kerry, the South Asian Affairs Sub-Committee chairman, explained to Mr. Singh and other top Indian government officials the U.S. Senate's schedule in a presidential election year means lawmakers in Washington face critical time constraints⁷.

"In order to be able to have time to debate this and pass it in the Senate, it would really probably have to be received somewhere in May, at the latest, in order to give time to be able to pass," he said. "So I think somewhere in the next weeks some kind of decision has got to happen because we are just going to run out of time."

Biden, who leads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, predicted that if either of his Democratic Party's contenders for president, Senator Hillary Clinton or Senator Barack Obama, win the White House, the deal would certainly have to be renegotiated. He said Democrats⁸ are moving towards - and not away from - stricter controls on nuclear proliferation.

U.S. lawmakers opposed to the deal have argued it could strengthen India's nuclear-weapons arsenal⁹ and trigger a regional arms race.

Biden says Prime Minister Singh told the three senators that he has run into domestic political obstacles.

"He explained his difficulties to us. He indicated he was going to pursue the effort," he said. "We were wise enough not to ask him any more than he would ask us. Precisely¹⁰ what he would do and how he would do it, when he would do it, and what his coalition¹¹ would do. But we walked away with a sense that he valued the agreement still and he still wanted the agreement."

Prime Minister Singh made no public comment on the warning delivered by the senators.

The three senators also expressed concern that the deal's failure could mean the Indo-American relationship will suffer, with Indians mistakenly blaming the collapse¹² of the landmark¹³ agreement on the U.S. Senate.

Both governments have touted¹⁴ the nuclear deal as the centerpiece of a new era in relations between Washington and New Delhi. But India's domestic opponents to the agreement contend it will bring India too close in strategic alignment¹⁵ with the United States. Some also feel it impinges on India's sovereign right to test nuclear weapons free of foreign restrictions¹⁶.

The pact would give India access to American nuclear fuel and reactors¹⁷. Such international cooperation has been out of the question since India set off atomic weapons tests in 1974 and again in 1998, and refused to sign treaties on non-proliferation and nuclear testing.

1 finalize   

v.落实，定下来

参考例句：

• Let us finalize tonight.让我们今天晚上干完
• 。At the same time,industrial designers work with engineers to finalize components and assembly.同时，工业设计师和工程师一道来完成部件和组装部分的工作。

2 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

3 ratify   

v.批准，认可，追认

参考例句：

• The heads of two governments met to ratify the peace treaty.两国政府首脑会晤批准和平条约。
• The agreement have to be ratify by the board.该协议必须由董事会批准。

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

5 pact   

n.合同，条约，公约，协定

参考例句：

• The two opposition parties made an electoral pact.那两个反对党订了一个有关选举的协定。
• The trade pact between those two countries came to an end.那两国的通商协定宣告结束。

6 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

7 constraints   

强制( constraint的名词复数 )； 限制； 约束

参考例句：

• Data and constraints can easily be changed to test theories. 信息库中的数据和限制条件可以轻易地改变以检验假设。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史
• What are the constraints that each of these imply for any design? 这每种产品的要求和约束对于设计意味着什么？ 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

8 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 arsenal   

n.兵工厂，军械库

参考例句：

• Even the workers at the arsenal have got a secret organization.兵工厂工人暗中也有组织。
• We must be the great arsenal of democracy.我们必须成为民主的大军火库。

10 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

11 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

12 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

13 landmark   

n.陆标，划时代的事，地界标

参考例句：

• The Russian Revolution represents a landmark in world history.俄国革命是世界历史上的一个里程碑。
• The tower was once a landmark for ships.这座塔曾是船只的陆标。

14 touted   

v.兜售( tout的过去式和过去分词 )；招揽；侦查；探听赛马情报

参考例句：

• She's being touted as the next leader of the party. 她被吹捧为该党的下一任领导人。
• People said that he touted for his mother and sister. 据说，他给母亲和姐姐拉生意。 来自辞典例句

15 alignment   

n.队列；结盟，联合

参考例句：

• The church should have no political alignment.教会不应与政治结盟。
• Britain formed a close alignment with Egypt in the last century.英国在上个世纪与埃及结成了紧密的联盟。

16 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

17 reactors   

起反应的人( reactor的名词复数 )； 反应装置； 原子炉； 核反应堆

参考例句：

• The TMI nuclear facility has two reactors. 三哩岛核设施有两个反应堆。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• The earliest production reactors necessarily used normal uranium as fuel. 最早为生产用的反应堆，必须使用普通铀作为燃料。