'Burns will visit India when it is most effective'

The United States has said that its Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns will travel to India when he believes that it is going to be 'most effective' in getting a 'deal' and that Washington wants to have the 123 Agreement done not only in a 'timely' manner but also ensuring that it is done right.

"Burns will go to New Delhi when we are ready to seal the deal. And we are not at that point yet," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Thursday when asked to comment on when Burns will be going to New Delhi.

"Nick's going to do what he thinks is appropriate and most effective in order to get a deal done. And at what point he travels to India, he is going to make that call. But he is going to do what he thinks is most effective in getting a deal."

"I know that there were some press reports about whether or not he was going to be going this week or next week. I am not aware that he has any travel plans, at this point, to go to India," McCormack said.

"Now, if this comes up within the context of the 1-2-3 agreement, where are we in that? We are working on it. We are making progress on it. It's not completed yet. But I understand that, over the course of the past several weeks, there have been some positive discussions on concluding that agreement.

"We certainly want to do that. We understand from the Indian government that they want to conclude that agreement as well," he added.

McCormack was reminded that earlier this month at the time of the Indian Foreign Secretary's visit he was very optimistic that the deal can be closed by the end of this month.

"I don't know if I said that it would be closed by month's end. I very rarely apply timelines to diplomacy. It inevitably proceeds more slowly than we would normally like. Sometimes we are surprised by that," McCormack said.

"But there is a commitment here to get this agreement done. We would like to do it sooner rather than later. But these are important issues, important issues for us. They are important issues for India. They are important issues for the international system that deal with matter of nonproliferation and nuclear energy," he added.