Political Quotes

“today the House has an opportunity to make an historic choice of great proportions. For 30 years, Mr. Chairman, U.S. policy toward India has been defined and constrained by our insistence on punishing India for its sovereign decision not to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The truth be told, had India conducted its nuclear tests earlier, it would have been treated the way we treat France and Britain and Russia and China and ourselves. In short, it would have been grandfathered in as a member of the nuclear weapons club. But they did not test earlier, and they have been treated differently. And nothing that we have tried over the last three decades has convinced them to give up their nuclear status, and nothing that we would say over the next three decades would convince them, either. The time has come for the United States to deal with the reality of South Asia as it is and not as a fanciful wish. India lives in a difficult neighborhood, next to Pakistan, which continues to produce nuclear weapons unchecked, and China, whose commitment to a fissile material cutoff is suspect, at best. If India didn't exist in that neighborhood, we would have to invent them. India has been a responsible nuclear power and deserves to be treated that way. The bill before us does just that.…”