Indo- US nuclear deal stuck in a 'logjam', fear analysts

Washington/ New Delhi, July 16 (ANI): The 2008 Indo-US nuclear deal seems to be stuck in a logjam, with analysts voicing concerns that India has not shown the political commitment to see the deal through.

"The Obama administration has done everything it can to implement the agreement. The problem from my perspective is on the Indian side. We haven't seen the same degree of political commitment to follow it through," Nicholas Burns, an undersecretary of state in the Bush administration who spent three years negotiating the agreement was quoted, as saying by the Washington Post.

Analysts and negotiators believe that Russia and France might benefit from all the hard work that the United States put into the deal.

"You can see a possible outcome where the U.S. has expended most of the diplomatic capital, but companies in other countries are the main beneficiaries," Richard Fontaine of the Center for a New American Security was quoted, as saying by the paper.

The deal itself, which became the symbol of a new partnership between the two countries, is not in any political danger. But American companies have not yet sold any reactors or equipment to India, the paper said.

While General Electric and U.S.-based, Japanese-owned Westinghouse Electric sit on the sidelines, France's Areva and Russia's Rosatom are already moving ahead in inking deals to build reactors in India, it added.

"The American things are moving slow," Anil Kakodkar, former chairman of Indian Atomic Energy Commission was quoted, as saying.

"But it is not India's fault. We have done everything we are supposed to do," he added. (ANI)