07-22-2007, 03:55 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Deal is done, review left </b>
Pioneer.com
Arun Kumar | Washington
Two years after President George Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set out on their "historic initiative", India and the US have finalised an agreement to implement their path-breaking civil nuclear deal.
The announcement came in a joint Press statement issued on Saturday. The statement said the two sides "are pleased with the substantial progress made on the outstanding issues in the 123 agreement. We will now refer the issue to our Governments for final review," confirming that the four days of hard negotiations had clinched the deal and now only await clearance at the political level.
"Both the US and India look forward to the completion of these remaining steps and to the conclusion of this historic initiative," the rather bland, carefully-drafted statement said, suggesting that all the sticky issues had been resolved following a high-level push from White House.
The joint statement did not say what the couple of tough issues stalling the agreement were or how they were resolved. Nor was an official comment forthcoming from either side. That an agreement was close at hand became apparent late Friday night when the high-level Indian team led by National Security Advisor MK Narayanan extended its stay by a day hours after he and Menon met US Vice-President Dick Cheney in the company of Indian ambassador to US Ronen Sen to get a political push from the top.
<b>Department of Atomic Energy Chairman Anil Kakodkar, whose nod was considered a must to clinch the deal, too stayed back as the two sides decided to move the talks into a second extra day amid signs that they may be close to breaking the logjam.</b>
The breakthrough came after Cheney added his weight to the impetus provided by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and US National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley. Narayanan kept a parallel dialogue on with Hadley as foreign office teams led by Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns worked on the so-called 123 agreement.
India put on the table an out-of-the-box proposal for setting up a fully safeguarded stand-alone dedicated facility for reprocessing US-origin fuel as Washington would neither permit reprocessing nor was it willing to take back spent fuel.
Other sticky points included India's insistence on its right to reprocess US nuclear fuel, conduct a test and guarantees for continued supply of fuel for the 14 civil reactors it has agreed to place under international safeguards under a separation plan. Eight other reactors designated military would not be subject to inspections.
Interventions from Cheney and Rice were reflective of President Bush's keenness to get the deal done before he leaves office in January 2009, to score a major foreign policy success on par with Richard Nixon's 1972 opening up to China.
Coming after several tortuous rounds of what is euphemistically called "steady progress", the talks were considered critical in the race to beat the clock with only a small window left to present the final deal to the US Congress for an up or down vote before it goes into another election cycle.
India also needs to sign an additional protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency and get the approval of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group.
Meanwhile, as Menon and Burns were negotiating the last "couple of feet" to borrow another Burns phrase in their "constructive and positive" dialogue, White House spokesman Tony Snow, voicing Bush's wish, declared: "We are working with the Government of India on something that is of intense mutual concern to us. We want to get it done.
<b>"The Congress has expressed support for the President's strategic partnership with India to work for the full civil nuclear energy cooperation that was part of the Hyde Act last December,"</b> he told reporters.
At the State Department, deputy spokesman Tom Casey said going into "extra innings" indicated that both sides are very committed to reaching an agreement here.
"We believe that concluding a 123 agreement is something vital to being able to fully implement the US-India civil nuclear accord and is something that is important for both countries," he said.
<b>"Lack of an announcement of an agreement today should not be taken as anything indicating that we won't ultimately be able to have a deal and be able to move forward on this,"</b> he said by way of an escape clause hours before the joint statement.
Asked why the US was not prepared to discuss the issues involved, Casey said he could not do a "play-by-play commentary" on ongoing diplomatic negotiations but <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>an agreement when concluded will be a public document open to scrutiny and full Congressional review. </span>
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Pioneer.com
Arun Kumar | Washington
Two years after President George Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set out on their "historic initiative", India and the US have finalised an agreement to implement their path-breaking civil nuclear deal.
The announcement came in a joint Press statement issued on Saturday. The statement said the two sides "are pleased with the substantial progress made on the outstanding issues in the 123 agreement. We will now refer the issue to our Governments for final review," confirming that the four days of hard negotiations had clinched the deal and now only await clearance at the political level.
"Both the US and India look forward to the completion of these remaining steps and to the conclusion of this historic initiative," the rather bland, carefully-drafted statement said, suggesting that all the sticky issues had been resolved following a high-level push from White House.
The joint statement did not say what the couple of tough issues stalling the agreement were or how they were resolved. Nor was an official comment forthcoming from either side. That an agreement was close at hand became apparent late Friday night when the high-level Indian team led by National Security Advisor MK Narayanan extended its stay by a day hours after he and Menon met US Vice-President Dick Cheney in the company of Indian ambassador to US Ronen Sen to get a political push from the top.
<b>Department of Atomic Energy Chairman Anil Kakodkar, whose nod was considered a must to clinch the deal, too stayed back as the two sides decided to move the talks into a second extra day amid signs that they may be close to breaking the logjam.</b>
The breakthrough came after Cheney added his weight to the impetus provided by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and US National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley. Narayanan kept a parallel dialogue on with Hadley as foreign office teams led by Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns worked on the so-called 123 agreement.
India put on the table an out-of-the-box proposal for setting up a fully safeguarded stand-alone dedicated facility for reprocessing US-origin fuel as Washington would neither permit reprocessing nor was it willing to take back spent fuel.
Other sticky points included India's insistence on its right to reprocess US nuclear fuel, conduct a test and guarantees for continued supply of fuel for the 14 civil reactors it has agreed to place under international safeguards under a separation plan. Eight other reactors designated military would not be subject to inspections.
Interventions from Cheney and Rice were reflective of President Bush's keenness to get the deal done before he leaves office in January 2009, to score a major foreign policy success on par with Richard Nixon's 1972 opening up to China.
Coming after several tortuous rounds of what is euphemistically called "steady progress", the talks were considered critical in the race to beat the clock with only a small window left to present the final deal to the US Congress for an up or down vote before it goes into another election cycle.
India also needs to sign an additional protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency and get the approval of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group.
Meanwhile, as Menon and Burns were negotiating the last "couple of feet" to borrow another Burns phrase in their "constructive and positive" dialogue, White House spokesman Tony Snow, voicing Bush's wish, declared: "We are working with the Government of India on something that is of intense mutual concern to us. We want to get it done.
<b>"The Congress has expressed support for the President's strategic partnership with India to work for the full civil nuclear energy cooperation that was part of the Hyde Act last December,"</b> he told reporters.
At the State Department, deputy spokesman Tom Casey said going into "extra innings" indicated that both sides are very committed to reaching an agreement here.
"We believe that concluding a 123 agreement is something vital to being able to fully implement the US-India civil nuclear accord and is something that is important for both countries," he said.
<b>"Lack of an announcement of an agreement today should not be taken as anything indicating that we won't ultimately be able to have a deal and be able to move forward on this,"</b> he said by way of an escape clause hours before the joint statement.
Asked why the US was not prepared to discuss the issues involved, Casey said he could not do a "play-by-play commentary" on ongoing diplomatic negotiations but <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>an agreement when concluded will be a public document open to scrutiny and full Congressional review. </span>
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