US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns -- the chief interlocutor of the US-India civilian nuclear deal -- who will resign in March, has said he is elated at India's decision to extend Ambassador to Washington Ronen Sen's stay, describing it as "good karma".
Buttonholed by rediff.com after he spoke on Global Challenges and Opportunities in the US Foreign Policy at the Council of Foreign Relations, and asked how he felt about New Delhi's decision to ask Sen to stay put in Washington even as the envoy was packing his bags to leave by the end of March and had in fact scheduled a farewell reception on March 12, Burns said, "He is a great friend of our country. We are so pleased."
"Ambassador Sen has done a magnificent job, (and) he has the full trust of the United States government," he said, and reiterated, "He is a great friend of ours and so we are very pleased that he will be staying on."
Asked if this could be interpreted as "a good karma" vis-a-vis the Manmohan Singh government being intent to go through with the deal and have Sen -- a protagonist behind the agreement -- in Washington to consummate the deal, Burns acknowledged, "It's good karma."
"I think it that it means that the positive direction that Prime Minister
"It's so important you know, we have a great American ambassador in Delhi, David Mulford, (and) we really respect Ronen Sen. So we are pleased to continue to work with him."
When asked if Sen's continuing in Washington would make him rethink his decision to leave the Administration, before the consummation of the accord, Burns laughed and said, "My decision is definitive."
But he declared, "We are great champions of our relationship with India," and predicted, "I think the US-India relationship is going to be very strong. We've got a lot of areas we can work in. We've gone through a lot together and I think the future is very bright between the two countries."
Burns asked about the upcoming visit of India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherji to Washington in late March for meetings with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and possibly an interaction with President Bush too, said, "We look forward to it."
"We haven't arranged the exact dates yet, but Rice is looking forward to welcoming Foreign Minister Mukherji to the United States," and said as far as the agenda, "Obviously, we want to focus on the major issues in our relationship, our regional cooperation in South Asia, Afghanistan, civil nuclear accord, our energy cooperation, our space cooperation, our agriculture cooperation and the relationship across the board."