US optimistic, India guarded on nuke deal
New Delhi, Dec 7 (PTI) Indicating that some of India’s key concerns will be addressed in the final bill on the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, the US today said it intends to meet all commitments including assured fuel supplies to India.
source PTI.
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“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 with… There has never been a deal quite like this”. 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 alongwith a strategic reserve. PTI |
