External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to meet United States President George W Bush on Monday and brief him on the progress in the negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency on the India-US nuclear agreement.Mukherjee will also be holding discussions with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other top officials of the Bush administration. The visit takes place within days of Mukherjee stating that India can neither mend nor end the deal.
'Diplomatic engagement will continue even as India keeps all its options open with respect to discretely targeting the Pakistani military and its terrorist proxies.'
Ahead of the United Progressive Alliance-Left coordination committee meeting on the Indo-US nuclear deal, the government on Saturday expressed hope that the differences with the supporting allies on the issue will be resolved. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters in Chandigarh that he was engaged in talks with the Left on the deal to sort out the matter.
CP!-M general secretary Prakash Karat has written to External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, government's key interlocutor with the allies on the deal, asking for immediate convening of a meeting of the UPA-Left committee on the nuclear deal by mid-March.
The China's foreign ministry criticised the visit, saying it will impact the boundary talks between the two countries.
The monsoon session of Parliament is likely to be convened around the second week of September, at the time when the India-United States nuclear agreement is expected to go through all the processes including the final voting by the American Congress.The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs is expected to take a decision on the matter next week, amid indications from the government as also the Congress that there is no hurry to convene the session.
US think tank Lisa Curtis talks about the Pakistan polls and its aftermath.
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 that India has asked its Ambassador to Washington Ronen Sen to stay on for another year, describing it as "good karma".
"Pranab Mukherjee met me this morning and said the government was in no position to accept a JPC probe," Advani said at a press conference in Parliament House on Wednesday.
'India will come increasingly in the US crosshairs if it insists on maintaining its strategic autonomy, warns Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Denying desisting from their stated position on the Indo-US nuclear deal, the Left parties on Tuesday asserted that they were ready for "any eventuality" even as they continued their engagement with the government to break the impasse over the issue.
To a question on continuing support to the government, Karat said he has just talked to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and it depends on what they decide.
Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who has always played a key role in defusing tensions with the Left, were also present at the crucial meeting.
In the wake of the movement in recent days with speculation rife that Prime Minister Singh is willing to go ahead with the deal even if the Left allies in the coalition withdraw their support, the Bush administration -- which some perceived was a totally unrealistic statement, but which sources said was consequent to indications from New Delhi that there would be movement on the deal from its current moribund status -- vowed to work to complete the deal.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee also discounted the possibility of midterm polls to the Lok Sabha in the wake of differences with the supporting Left parties on the deal.
With a decelerating economy that weakens India's hands on geopolitical issues, it will be interesting to know which way this trip will go.
The luncheon meeting took place at the prime minister's official Race Course Road residence.
Marshall Bouton, South Asia expert, says that the fallout from a failed nuclear deal could jeopardise India-US ties
The IAEA has been asked to negotiate the terms for monitoring North Korea's shutdown of the Yongbyon facility.
