Saran meets Burns

NEW DELHI: Special envoy on the nuclear deal Shyam Saran met US under secretary of state for political affairs Nicholas Burns in Washington to resume discussions on the bilateral agreement to operationalise the Hyde Act allowing nuclear trade with India.

Mr Saran and Mr Burns held two rounds of discussions to chalk out the timetable for formal negotiations into the 123 agreement. The two sides also exchanged a second draft of the 123 agreement. Till now a number of informal meetings have taken place on the 123 agreement.

Mr Saran was also scheduled to meet US national security advisor Steve Hadley. With the passing of the Henry J Hyde United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act of 2006, the two sides have to begin formal negotiations to finalise the 123 agreement which will govern nuclear cooperation between the two countries.

New Delhi has already expressed apprehensions on some of the clauses in the Hyde Act and said that it is not ready to accept any legally-binding provision on India���s voluntary moratorium on future nuclear testing.

Mr Saran had said recently that India is not prepared to accept any reference to the unilateral moratorium on testing in the bilateral agreement. This is one of the prime areas of disagreement between the two sides.

New Delhi also wants a clear-cut provision allowing reprocessing of spent fuel and is not willing to accept multi-layered monitoring of reactors as mentioned in the Hyde Act. India has also expressed unhappiness with a provision in the Hyde Act that allows only conditional access to reprocessing equipment and heavy water.

Soon after the Hyde act was passed, US president George W Bush had assured India that he was not bound to follow some of the ���extraneous and prescriptive��� provisions in the Hyde Act.

Once the 123 agreement is negotiated, it goes to the US Congress, which is now dominated by the Democrats, for approval. The US also wants India to complete negotiations on a safeguards agreement with the IAEA and get the Nuclear Suppliers Group nod before the US Congress votes in an up or down vote on the 123 agreement.