| GWB is trying to get half-a-loaf here, I think. |
“We simply don’t know whether we will have an agreement before President Bush’s visit. We are trying our best,” said US Undersecretary of State Nicholas "Monty" Burns
, who is in New Delhi to prepare the ground for the presidential visit. “Both of us want to complete these negotations but there are still some remaining differences between us and those differences need to be worked out,” Burns told reporters after talks here with Indian foreign secretary Shyam Saran.He described his exchanges with Saran as “good” but stressed, ”There are still remaining differences.”
Washington says India must put its “fast breeder” reactor programme, which can be used to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons, on a list of civilian facilities to be placed under international supervision. Indian scientists however say that this step will compromise the country’s strategic interests.
The scientific adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh weighed in on Wednesday by saying outright India would not open the facility for international inspections. “Who said we are going to put the fast breeder reactors in the civilian side? We cannot and will not do so,” scientific adviser C.N.R. Rao told the Press Trust of India. “We will accept only whatever is good for India ... The deal cannot be forced on us. The country’s interest will be protected,” Rao said.
India’s junior foreign minister Anand Sharma also told parliament Thursday that India would separate its facilities ”voluntarily”, and that the exercise would be based on the country’s ”national interests”.
Indian media reports Thursday quoted unnamed government officials as saying that India was likely to tell Burns it would not place more than 32 facilities under safeguards compared to the 60 facilities Washington wants on the list. New Delhi would also agree to international safeguards for its fast-breeder reactors but not before 2010, the reports said.
Ahead of his visit, Bush said in Washington that the nuclear deal would take time and require patience to implement. Bush and Singh signed the deal in July, but it still needs the approval of the US Congress and the 44-member Nuclear Suppliers Group.