Amidst clouds spreading over fate of the nuclear deal, the Minister for External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee by covering distances in inches towards the formulation of Indo-US nuclear deal has reached Washington Monday on his maiden bilateral visit to the country to hold informal talks with President George Bush. The meeting is expected to be dominating by the nuclear deal.
Sources however say that the meeting attended by a small delegation of the two-nations will have a discussion on the range of issues comprising bilateral, regional and global, but to everyone’s knowledge all issues will be overshadowed by the civilian nuclear pact.
Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and Joint Secretary (Americas) Gaitri Kumar have also accompanied Mukherjee to assist him on his two-day official tour to US, who commenced the day with a formal round of talks at the State Department.
Before meeting with the Bush, Mukherjee is set to hold talks with his counterpart, the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to sort out the problems. Mukherjee would head off for New York on Tuesday from where the delegation would take off for India.
With nothing much to give Bush about the nuclear deal besides a mere assurance that his government is sincere enough to give deal a positive note and it will not left in cold bag at any cost despite unprecedented domestic pressure.
From the India’s point of view, Mukherjee may ask the US government to commence unofficial dialogue with the Nuclear Supplier Group (NSG). Against the repeated warning by the US that time was running out of the deal, Mukherjee may explain to Bush administration his government’s mess created out of the Left allies’ stubborn approach vis-à-vis the nuclear deal and could seek more time for accomplishing the deal.
The final agreed draft by the Indian government will be presented before the Board of Governor of IAEA then to US and lastly the deal will be presented before 45-member Nuclear Supplier Group (NSG) to get it clear which will give India unconditional exemption to do nuclear exchange internationally.
From the US standpoint, the Bush administration would hope to get clear assurance from the Indian government on the civilian nuclear deal.
The Bush administration has already warned the Indian government that it needs at least two months to complete the NSG process, which involves convincing each and every member of the NSG to support India.
In numerous interviews and in parliamentary session, Mukherjee had repeatedly stated much before his US visit that a minority government couldn’t and should not sign the nuclear deal. Nevertheless, the US has been building up pressure on the UPA government to go ahead on the deal.
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