India, US in last leg of 123 talks
PM says that the 123 agreement was in the 'last leg' of negotiations.
By TNN |
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said that the 123 agreement was in the `last leg’ of negotiations even as the Bush administration maintained that `tough issues’ needed to be resolved.
While a fresh round of negotiations is underway, the prime minister, speaking on the sidelines of a book release function, refused to put a timetable on negotiations. “I can’t say,” he said when asked about a possible timeframe.
The fresh round of talks to work out key issues started on Tuesday with delegation level talks headed by foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon on the Indian side and under secretary of state for political affairs Nicholas Burns on the US side.
But crucial discussions were underway on Wednesday with National Security Advisor M K Narayanan and his US counterpart Stephen Hadley heading the respective delegations. Mr Narayanan was also scheduled to meet with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Negotiations have now been stuck over two key issues which both sides have failed to resolve in spite of several rounds of meeting. The key remaining issues include the issues of reprocessing of spent fuel and converting India’s voluntary moratorium on testing into a legal requirement. But this round of negotiations is being seen as critical as time is running out for the civilian nuclear deal.
The Bush administration said that both sides would make a push to finalise the 123 agreement. State department spokesman Sean McCormack was quoted as saying that both Washington and New Delhi are ready to work in a `constructive manner’ to ensure that the deal is finalised.
``We’re going to take stock of where we are in negotiating the so-called 123 agreement. This is a serious, high-level delegation. And it’s really to try to make a push to get this agreement over the finish line. There are a couple of tough issues that we have still to resolve. We believe that we can get a deal, we can get an agreement,’’ McCormack was quoted as saying in a briefing.
“I think it really comes down to a matter of timing. When is that going to get done? This meeting will provide us a good indicator as to the answer to that question,” the spokesman added.
The Tuesday talks between Mr Menon and Mr Burns also included Deputy Chief of the Indian Mission in Washington Raminder Singh Jassal, Atomic Energy Commission official R B Grover, India’s High Commissioner to Singapore S. Jaishankar and joint secretary (Americas) Gaitri Kumar.
While a fresh round of negotiations is underway, the prime minister, speaking on the sidelines of a book release function, refused to put a timetable on negotiations. “I can’t say,” he said when asked about a possible timeframe.
The fresh round of talks to work out key issues started on Tuesday with delegation level talks headed by foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon on the Indian side and under secretary of state for political affairs Nicholas Burns on the US side.
But crucial discussions were underway on Wednesday with National Security Advisor M K Narayanan and his US counterpart Stephen Hadley heading the respective delegations. Mr Narayanan was also scheduled to meet with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Negotiations have now been stuck over two key issues which both sides have failed to resolve in spite of several rounds of meeting. The key remaining issues include the issues of reprocessing of spent fuel and converting India’s voluntary moratorium on testing into a legal requirement. But this round of negotiations is being seen as critical as time is running out for the civilian nuclear deal.
The Bush administration said that both sides would make a push to finalise the 123 agreement. State department spokesman Sean McCormack was quoted as saying that both Washington and New Delhi are ready to work in a `constructive manner’ to ensure that the deal is finalised.
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``We’re going to take stock of where we are in negotiating the so-called 123 agreement. This is a serious, high-level delegation. And it’s really to try to make a push to get this agreement over the finish line. There are a couple of tough issues that we have still to resolve. We believe that we can get a deal, we can get an agreement,’’ McCormack was quoted as saying in a briefing.
“I think it really comes down to a matter of timing. When is that going to get done? This meeting will provide us a good indicator as to the answer to that question,” the spokesman added.
The Tuesday talks between Mr Menon and Mr Burns also included Deputy Chief of the Indian Mission in Washington Raminder Singh Jassal, Atomic Energy Commission official R B Grover, India’s High Commissioner to Singapore S. Jaishankar and joint secretary (Americas) Gaitri Kumar.
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