10-19-2007, 03:58 PM
<b>Mulford meets foreign secretary over N-deal</b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh indicating that he had not given up hopes on the nuclear deal, US Ambassador to India David Mulford today met Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon in New Delhi to discuss the fate of the agreement.
<b>Mulford, is understood to have conveyed the USâ displeasure over uncertainty that has come to surround the crucial initiative between the two countries.</b>
In his third meeting in four days with leaders and officials here, the US envoy is believed to have sought to know what the government is planning to do to push the deal that is being vigorously opposed by the ruling coalitionâs Left allies.
The meeting came a day after Singh said the âprocess of evolving a meaningful consensusâ on the deal is still on, indicating that he had still not lost hope on it.
The comment came less than a week after Singh said that failure of the deal would not be âthe end of lifeâ and that his was ânot a one-issue governmentâ.
The statement caused disappointment in the Bush administration which hoped that the UPA government would continue to push the deal.
Three days ago, US President George W Bush called up Singh, who was in Nigeria, and the Prime Minister told him that âdifficultiesâ had arisen in operationalisation of the deal.
The US envoy had earlier met External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Joint Secretary (Americas) in the Ministry to convey his countryâs disappointment. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh indicating that he had not given up hopes on the nuclear deal, US Ambassador to India David Mulford today met Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon in New Delhi to discuss the fate of the agreement.
<b>Mulford, is understood to have conveyed the USâ displeasure over uncertainty that has come to surround the crucial initiative between the two countries.</b>
In his third meeting in four days with leaders and officials here, the US envoy is believed to have sought to know what the government is planning to do to push the deal that is being vigorously opposed by the ruling coalitionâs Left allies.
The meeting came a day after Singh said the âprocess of evolving a meaningful consensusâ on the deal is still on, indicating that he had still not lost hope on it.
The comment came less than a week after Singh said that failure of the deal would not be âthe end of lifeâ and that his was ânot a one-issue governmentâ.
The statement caused disappointment in the Bush administration which hoped that the UPA government would continue to push the deal.
Three days ago, US President George W Bush called up Singh, who was in Nigeria, and the Prime Minister told him that âdifficultiesâ had arisen in operationalisation of the deal.
The US envoy had earlier met External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Joint Secretary (Americas) in the Ministry to convey his countryâs disappointment. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->