Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
7/25/2014
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has signed off on a new nuclear cooperation agreement with Vietnam, but the addition of several policy provisions added by Senate Democrats are unlikely to find support in the House. The Senate committee this week approved the pact in legislation that is largely based on a bill introduced in May by Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) that adds a 30-year expiration date to the agreement, and some future nuclear cooperation deals.
The legislation approved this week also includes a provision calling for strengthened nuclear proliferation reviews of possible nuclear cooperation agreements, but it does not address one of the biggest issues in the deal raised by some, the lack of legally binding restrictions on enrichment and reprocessing, which became known as the ‘gold standard’ when it was incorporated in an agreement with the United Arab Emirates.
House Lawmakers Object to ‘Gold Standard’ Omission
The deal, finalized last October, has a nonbinding commitment from Vietnam to rely on existing fuel services rather than developing its own sensitive nuclear technologies, but no firm commitment. That has stirred up concern among nonproliferation activists and some in Congress. “I strongly oppose this agreement. Allowing Vietnam to enrich undermines our objectives in other areas in the Middle East where allies such as the UAE and Jordan are held to the gold standard,” Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) said at a House Foreign Affairs hearing earlier this month.
However, the agreement does not need Congressional approval to enter force, and Congressional aides said it’s unlikely the House will take up the Senate version of the bill. The agreement will take effect after it sits before Congress for 90 consecutive legislative days. Only a bill opposing the agreement could prevent it from entering force.
Congress Seeking More Control Over Agreements
In recent years, Congress has sought more control over so-called ‘123 agreements,’ and a House bill drafted by Ros-Lehtinen and Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) would impose the gold standard on new deals and would also allow Congress to vote on the agreements rather than allow them to enter force after 90 days. The legislation passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week also seeks to exert more control over the agreements with language adding an expiration date after 30 years to the pacts. The State Department has sought agreements that have no expiration date.
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.
