Indian, US officials deny hitch on nuke deal

Washington, Feb 23: Top Indian and US diplomats have ruled out the possibility of any last-minute hitch in finalising the US-India civilian nuclear agreement, setting at rest doubts raised in both the countries over the future of the historic deal.

Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns said leaders of the two countries had already reached an understanding on the basic issue.

''Our job is now a technical job, actually, expressing it in legal terms,'' Mr Menon remarked.

He, however, admitted that it was not an easy job even after reaching the basic understanding. He did not spell out any time frame within which these formalities would be completed.

The two officials were replying to questions from an invited audience at their joint appearance at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a local think tank, after wide-ranging discussions on the bilateral issues earlier in the day.

Mr Menon, who is on his first visit to the US after taking over as Foreign Secretary, made it clear that ''it is not our job now to try and renegotiate the words we put in the proposed 123 agreement,'' relating to the implementation of the deal.

As far India-specific safeguards were concerned, he pointed out, ''We will discuss them with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) separately and we are doing that. Whether that is compatible with the US law, I can not answer that question.'' Mr Menon said, ''It is an important sign for relations to think outside the box, to transform this relationship and start dealing with each other in a totally new way which reflects new reality.'' Mr Burns said he agreed with Mr Menon that the big issues had already been settled and what was left was the codification of what had already been agreed.

The two officials also focussed the two countries cooperation in the fight against terrorism.

Mr Burns highlighted the areas of cooperation, including intelligence, law enforcement and diplomatic field.

Mr Menon said, ''We both (India and United States) are the victims of terrorism and have the capability to deal with it.''

UNI

Related Stories