'Firming up N-deal is matter of time'
As top officials of India and the US held hectic meetings to end the logjam in talks on the civil nuclear deal, Washington on Thursday said both sides were committed to reach the agreement and it was just a matter of time.
By PTI |
WASHINGTON: As top officials of India and the US held hectic meetings to end the logjam in talks on the civil nuclear deal, Washington on Thursday said both sides were committed to reach the agreement and it was just a matter of time.
"Certainly, there's no time like the present to reach a deal," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters here as National Security Adviser M K Narayanan prepared to meet Vice President Dick Cheney during which the nuclear issue will come up.
"We (the two sides) had some preliminary discussions yesterday. There are going to be some more discussions with (Under Secretary of State) Nick Burns and (Assistant Secretary of State) Richard Boucher. So we'll see," McCormack said, adding after these parleys "we'll have a better idea" as to "where we are."
Asked to comment on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's assertion that the talks on 123 agreement, that will operationalise the civil nuclear deal, were in the "last leg", the spokesman said, "well, we hope that's in fact the case."
He said US has expressed its commitment and desire to reach an agreement "and we're sure that the Indian government wants to reach an agreement. The question is a matter of when and the timing of it".
"Certainly, there's no time like the present to reach a deal," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters here as National Security Adviser M K Narayanan prepared to meet Vice President Dick Cheney during which the nuclear issue will come up.
"We (the two sides) had some preliminary discussions yesterday. There are going to be some more discussions with (Under Secretary of State) Nick Burns and (Assistant Secretary of State) Richard Boucher. So we'll see," McCormack said, adding after these parleys "we'll have a better idea" as to "where we are."
Asked to comment on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's assertion that the talks on 123 agreement, that will operationalise the civil nuclear deal, were in the "last leg", the spokesman said, "well, we hope that's in fact the case."
He said US has expressed its commitment and desire to reach an agreement "and we're sure that the Indian government wants to reach an agreement. The question is a matter of when and the timing of it".
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