PM-Bush meet may clear hurdles in N-deal

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left for the G-8 summit in Germany on Wednesday afternoon with a packed agenda.

Although the issue of climate change and Iran's nuclear ambitions are on the table for the Group of Eight countries, Indian imagination is likely to remain focused on the bilateral meeting between Dr Singh and United State President George W Bush. The prime minister's meetings with other world leaders are being underplayed.

Sources at the ministry of external affairs claim the ball now lies in America's court on the India-US nuclear deal

The issue of allowing India to reprocess imported fuel to extract plutonium remains unresolved even after US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns's three-day visit to New Delhi last week. The issue could well be decided at the Bush-Singh meeting.

"The reprocessing issue requires a political decision, and not a technical one," says an Indian diplomat.

It is intriguing that the MEA's negotiators leaked out information that the edgy issue of allowing reprocessing rights to India is possible under existing US law and it is now up to the American leadership (meaning President Bush) to take the initiative to agree and present their case to the United States Congress.

There are also unresolved issues related to the language used in the agreement.

It is understood that there will be a clear idea of the direction and status of the nuclear deal after the Singh–Bush meeting in Germany. It will hopefully enter the last phase of negotiations.

Since there are sensitivities involved on both sides, the nuclear deal will not be officially cleared in a third country.

The US has allowed reprocessing rights only twice, and that too under difficult conditions where a US inspector remained present.

A senior source in New Delhi said, "Indian critics talk about the Hyde Act, but woh to bachcha hain (that is a child), the US Atomic Energy Act is the baap (father) of nuclear control (meaning, compared to the US Atomic Energy Act, the newly passed Hyde Act is not as stringent). Indian critics have never talked about it before."

At a recent speech at the Heritage Foundation, the think-tank in Washington, DC, Burns had said, 'I believe the positive history of the 21st century will be written in large part by Indians and Americans together -- as we will stand together for the growth of democracy, free-market economies, and peace in Asia and around the world. When the history of our time in office is written, I am confident the great strategic leap forward in cementing the US-India strategic partnership will count among the most important accomplishments of Presidents Bush and Clinton with Prime Minister Singh and his predecessors.'

Both sides are obviously inching towards sealing the deal, but for the sake of history would like to write the credit line for the agreement very carefully, and after some tough bargaining.