NEW DELHI, 17 October 2007 — The Indian government has told the United States it is having trouble pushing through a landmark nuclear deal, indicating that pressure from the left allies has forced it to take the decision.
Welcoming the change in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s approach toward the deal, the left bloc described it yesterday as a “positive development.”
On Monday night, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh talked to President George W. Bush from Abuja, Nigeria on telephone and told him about the problems being faced in pushing the deal through. The prime minister, according to a statement from his office, “explained to President Bush that certain difficulties have arisen with respect to the operationalization of the India-US civil nuclear cooperation agreement.”
The difficulty being faced by India in going ahead with the deal was conveyed by Manmohan directly to Bush within a few days of his having acknowledged this at a media gathering in the capital.
Manmohan had been pushing for the conclusion of the deal as his key foreign policy achievement.
In New Delhi, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee met the US ambassador to India, David Mulford, to explain the problems, a Foreign Ministry official said.
The deal, finalized in August after two years of complex negotiations, had been championed as the start of a new era of ties between the United States and one of Asia’s fastest growing economies.
Meanwhile, the United States said yesterday it hoped India would stick to the accord. “We do hope though that India will decide to move forward with this agreement and we like to see it completed in 2008,” said Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman.
“The United States has worked very hard and has met its commitments under the agreement and we are going to continue to work hard to fulfill it,” Casey said.
“Certainly, we understand that there are some internal discussions on this (in India). We don’t want to interfere in those and so we will let the Indians speak to any issued related to that,” he said.
The United States, Casey said, would continue talks with India to push ahead with the agreement, under which Washington would provide New Delhi with nuclear fuel and technology.
— With input from agencies
