Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
5/30/2014
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced legislation last week that signs off on the Obama Administration’s controversial nuclear cooperation agreement with Vietnam but includes a provision that would put an expiration date on the agreement, and some future nuclear cooperation deals. The language in the resolution filed by Menendez May 22 is in opposition to the State Department’s interest in so-called ‘123 agreements’ that have no expiration date, giving Congress continuing oversight of the deals.
The 30-year limit on the agreement would not apply to all agreements. Deals that have entered force by Aug. 1, 2014 would not be subject to the limitation, nor would deals with NATO allies, Australia, Israel, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Taiwan, and the International Atomic Energy Agency. For other deals, the legislation says "no license to export pursuant to an agreement that has entered into force pursuant to the requirements of such section 123 may be issued after the date that is 30 years after the date of entry into force of such agreement." The legislation also allows Congress to renew future 123 agreements for up to 30 years in the final five years of existing deals.
Menendez’s legislation is silent on the most controversial provision in the agreement with Vietnam: the lack of adherence to the ‘gold standard’ of 123 deals that puts restrictions on enrichment and reprocessing capabilities. The ‘gold standard’ moniker arose out of the 123 agreement with the United Arab Emirates, but the State Department has moved away from making such restrictions the standard across the board in all 123 agreements. The preamble to the Vietnam deal, signed by President Obama May 6 and sent to Congress May 8, includes a commitment from Vietnam to rely on existing fuel services rather than developing its own sensitive nuclear technologies, but that commitment is not binding.
