NEW DELHI: India is keeping its "fingers crossed" on whether negotiations on the civil nuclear deal with the United States would be concluded by the time U.S. President George W. Bush arrives here on Wednesday evening.

Top Government sources told this correspondent that negotiations had been continuing with the American side and India was "reasonably hopeful" that an agreement would be reached before or during the Bush visit.

Asked if the Americans were happy with the position spelt out on Monday by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the sources said, "This is the Government's position. We do not know if the Americans are happy with it."

In a related development, Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran told presspersons that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had spoken to Dr. Singh on Monday night and said the two sides needed to "work hard" to conclude the civil nuclear deal.

Hard bargaining

"We are doing very hard bargaining," Mr. Saran said when asked about the nuclear deal at a press briefing. "It was always obvious it would be difficult for both sides." He stressed that India did not want to leave any ambiguities in the deal, which might create difficulties in the future.

The Foreign Secretary said the U.S. had ruled out providing fuel for the Tarapur nuclear reactors before a full agreement was reached on civil nuclear cooperation. He conceded that there was a difference in interpretation when it came to the Tarapur fuel issue in the July 18, 2005 joint statement. The statement uses the phrase "in the meantime", which the Indian side interpreted to mean supply of fuel for Tarapur from the Americans even as negotiations continued on an overall civil nuclear deal.

Mr. Saran said some major initiatives in the field of agriculture, energy, economy and trade, biotechnology and defence technology were expected during the Mr. Bush's visit.

Power plants

Mr. Saran said the U.S. would help launch a "second green revolution" in Indian agriculture. The two sides had also agreed to work on zero-emission coal-based power plants.

Many of these agreements would be referred to in the joint statement or separate fact sheets to be issued during the Bush visit.

Asked whether an Indian astronaut would be placed in space as had been previously agreed, the Foreign Secretary stated this involved making a financial outlay by the Government.

"Our space agency came to the conclusion that this would not fit into their perspective plan."

On Mr. Bush's reported comment about the "citizens" of Kashmir, Mr. Saran said Jammu and Kashmir was an integral part of India. "Citizens of Kashmir are citizens of India," he said.

In response to another question, Mr. Saran said India had no intention of dropping out of the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, which the U.S. has publicly opposed.

Asked how India would vote on Iran on March 6 given that the International Atomic Energy Agency had reportedly given a clean chit to Teheran, Mr. Saran replied that this would depend on the contents of the resolution.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail