Indian Foreign Secretary to visit US from Apr 29

Washington, Apr 28: Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon arrives here tomorrow in a bid to break the deadlock in the negotiations over the so-called 123 agreement, a prerequisite for the implementation of the US-India nuclear deal that will ensure flow American nuclear technology to India.

Mr Menon will have talks with Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns and other officials here on Monday and Tuesday.

The new round of talk has acquired significance because the experts of the two countries at their discussions in Cape Town, South Africa, early this month, failed to make any headway. Their failure has led to the current Washington round of discussions in which Mr Menon will himself participate and is expected to indicate the final position of India on contentious issues.

The US has voiced "frustration" at the slow pace of negotiations on the deal.

The stalemate appears to be on India's insistence on retaining the right to conduct nuclear test for which the US side, at least for the time being, appears unwilling to yield. This will call for an amendment in the US non-proliferation laws and the Bush administration is not prepared to go ahead.

Expectations here are that the Indian Foreign Secretary would put forward some proposals that would help break the deadlock.

Meanwhile, the lawmakers of both the Democratic and Republican parties are concerned on what they called the strategic partnership between India and Iran, especially their growing military-to-military relations.

According to Congressional sources, a bipartisan group of eight US senators, in a letter addressed to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently, protested against the strategic partnership with Iran because Tehran, they say, is developing nuclear weapons and supports terrorism.

Indications here that Congressional displeasure over the Indo-Iranian military relations is likely to caste its shadow on the negotations over the India-US nuclear deal.

However, State Department spokesman Sean Mccormack had said the issue of Iranian-Indian cooperation had not arisen in the US-Indian negotiations.

UNI