India guarded on civil nuclear deal; US optimistic Friday, December 08, 2006 10:44 [IST]
New Delhi: Indicating that
some of India's key concerns
will be addressed in the final bill on the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, the US yesterday (Dec 7,2006)said it intends to meet
all commitments including assured fuel supplies to India.
"We anticipate a very supportive bill," Under Secretary of State
Nicholas Burns said at a joint press conference with Foreign Secretary
Shivshankar Menon after day-long talks on a wide range of issues.
He was confident that the final bill will be through in the Congressional
process in the next 36 hours and will be within the parameters of the agreement
reached between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George W Bush on
July 18 last year.
"The US
intends to meet all the commitments that we made to the Indian Government on
July 18, 2005 and March 2, 2006 that includes fuel assurances," he said.
"We believe this bill will be within the parametres of these agreements.
Therefore, we will welcome the bill and go ahead and implement it," he
said adding that the two sides were now at an 'easier stage'.
He said the most difficult part of this process was the negotiations in the
last 18 months.
"We had tough issues to deal withThere has never been a
deal quite like this," he siad.
Burns was responding to a question whether the US will uphold the commitments made
by President George W Bush of assured fuel supplies to Indian reactors along with
a strategic reserve. |