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| India, US inch closer to nuke deal |
| Talks in Washington on the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal are going down to the wire.
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| UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
, 20-July-2007
10:25:6 AM |
| The three day talks on the 123 agreement have now been extended by a day, a sign that both sides are trying hard to break the impasse over India's right to reprocess spent fuel and the fallout of India conducting a nuclear test.
India's National Security Advisor M K Narayanan also held talks with US Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday in an effort to break the logjam.
Narayanan and his American counterpart Hadley and their respective delegations had a three hour-long meeting. The American side has stated that both India and the United States had overcome most of the outstanding issues.
Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon meanwhile, met Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns.
Burns has termed the final talks as going into an extra innings, adding that he was hopeful that there will be an agreement.
''We have overcome many of the outstanding issues. We just need to go the extra couple of feet,'' he said.
Ambitious chapter
The urgency to wrap up the 123 agreement in this round of negotiations is reflected both in the extension of talks by a day and also in the top-level team that was sent by New Delhi to Washington this time round.
Headed by National Security Advisor MK Narayanan, it includes Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodar and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon.
The Indo-US nuclear cooperation deal is possibly the most ambitious chapter in India and America's diplomatic history.
For two years now there have been numerous meetings on the sidelines and four formal rounds of negotiations on this, all under the critical scrutiny of political opposition in both countries.
With President Bush's term in office winding up in 2008, negotiators are racing against the clock.
If the civilian nuclear arrangement is to be approved by the current Congress, then the legislation will have to ''lie'' in Congress for 90 days before it can be voted on.
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