Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi seems to be in a denial over failure in getting a commitment from the US the civilian nuclear deal.
China on Tuesday inked an agreement worth a whopping USD 4.8 billion with cash-strapped Pakistan to set up a 1,200-megawatt nuclear power plant as a sign of increasing strategic cooperation between the two all-weather allies.
The government has approved the construction of two indigenously designed nuclear attack submarines and is expected to ink contracts next month to procure 26 naval variant of Rafale jets and three Scorpene submarines, Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh Tripathi said on Monday.
'You don't need massive industry or huge energy resources.' 'You could start with just 3 or 4 people in a coffee shop and invent the world.'
Samajwadi Party leaders Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh on Friday made it clear that they favoured the Indo-US nuclear deal as they met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi over the issue.
The CPI-M leader was fluent in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Bangla, and also Malayalam. He was also well-versed in Hindu mythology, and often used those references in his speeches especially to attack the BJP.
The bill clearly states what is required of India.
The Indian Diaspora has been able to carve a niche in their adopted countries as a result of their talent, perseverance and hardworking nature, asserts Rup Narayan Das.
Notwithstanding the opposition posed to the nuclear liability bill, the United States on Monday said it is "optimistic and positive" about conclusion of the historic nuclear deal with India in the coming months.
The security situation in South Asia could get further complicated if the United States agrees to have a civilian nuclear deal with Pakistan, according to experts. Pakistan and the US are set to hold their first high-level strategic dialogue this week in Washington, co-chaired by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi. Pakistan wants a nuclear deal with the US on the lines of the ndo-US nuclear deal.
Weeks after 'breakthrough', substantial work is yet to be done
"China's cooperation with Pakistan in nuclear power is for peaceful means and is supervised by the International Atomic Energy Agency, (IAEA). The US always questions Pakistan's nuclear activities, but how about its latest nuclear deal with India," Chinese newspaper Global Times quoted He Maochun, director of the Research Centre for Economic Diplomacy Studies of Tsinghua University, as probing.
The country is planning to increase its nuclear power generation by about 60,000 mega watts (Mw) within the next 25 years. This planned capacity addition is being executed by the state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL). Its head, Chairman and Managing Director SK Jain, tells P B Jayakumar about his plans and expectations.
"We are committed to resolving all outstanding issues between our two countries through peaceful dialogue. There are certain concerns we have about infiltration, about violations of ceasefire, these I did raise and I hope that in the days and months to come the Government of Pakistan will have the wisdom to address some of them," said the prime minister.
Even as the Indo-US nuclear deal is gathering dust on the backburner because of stiff opposition from the Left parties, Congress president and chairperson of United Progressive Alliance Sonia Gandhi on Friday underlined the importance of nuclear energy for the country at this juncture.
Keen to conclude the civil nuclear deal by the year-end, India and the US will hold another round of high level talks in July to sort out differences that have been nagging the negotiations for months.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee met Communist Party of India - Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat on Tuesday to discuss the India-United States civilian nuclear agreement. Mukherjee asked the Left Front to allow the United Progressive Alliance government to go ahead with the safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The move by Westinghouse, which is to build six reactors in India under the Indo-US civil nuclear deal inked in 2008, has raised uncertainties over the future of the implementation of the historic pact.
Khamenei said: "We do not violate the deal, but if the other party violates it, if they tear the agreement up, we will light it on fire."
The reaction came a day after Gandhi obliquely attacked the Left, saying that "elements" opposing the nuclear agreement were not only "enemies" of the Congress, but also of the nation's progress and development.
Harris slammed President Donald Trump and pledged to 'rejoin' the Paris agreement on Climate Change and 'strengthen and re-enter' the Iran nuclear deal. "Joe Biden and our administration is gonna have a massive job to repair the damage done by Donald Trump and his administration, and to restore our place in the world," she said.
No single individual, institution, or action is to blame for this. The BJP is responding in kind -- definitely not without checking with its government. And they wait for Mr Trump, notes Shekhar Gupta.
Experts have said that the deal appears to be violating international guidelines forbidding nuclear exports to countries that have not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or do not have international safeguards on reactors.
From the resurrected cash-for-votes scandal to a rigged process favouring four foreign vendors -- and from new safety concerns to the special legislation that caps the foreign suppliers' accident liability by burdening the Indian taxpayer -- the nuclear deal's future looks more troubled than ever, says Brahma Chellaney.
"If there is any change, I will not accept it," said Rao, who heads the Prime Minister's Scientific Advisory Council.
The chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission makes a case for nuclear energy saying all other forms of power gerenration will not be able to meet the country's staggering demand.
Indian-American Republican leader Nikky Haley has endorsed her former boss Donald Trump as the party's candidate for the presidential election, delivering the message of unity after their bitter rivalry during the presidential primary.
The CPI-M on Tuesday warned the UPA government at the Centre would "face the consequences" if it went ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal. CPI-M politburo member Sitaram Yechuri said the outcome of the discussion between India and IAEA regarding the nuclear deal would be conveyed to Left parties by the government on March 17 at the Left-UPA Coordination Committee meeting.
In perhaps what could be his swansong appearance as the Obama administration's point man for South Asia, Robert Blake has acknowledged that the impasse over the implementation of the US-India civilian nuclear deal poses many challenges to Washington and New Delhi.
India and the US on Friday operationalised the "path-breaking" bilateral nuclear deal as they signed the 123 Agreement here, with New Delhi insisting that the accord is "legally-binding" on both sides.
"The enemies of the country want to project the militancy in the country as indigenous and for this purpose, they have been recruiting some local youth for arms training," he said.
'And if the United States, at that time, perceives India to have welched on the deal, not been our friend, when we did so much to make it a friend, that's trouble.'
Pakistan appears to be reconciled to a long haul in clinching a civil nuclear deal with the US with President Asif Ali Zardari today saying it took nine years for India to secure an atomic pact with Washington.
"The draft will also be put on the government of India website to facilitate a larger discussion," he said.
'India has had seven years after the 1998 tests, what has it done on the weapons front?'
Ajit Jain, rediff India Abroad, managing editor, Canada, who is traveling with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on his first-ever visit to India, reports on future course of the civilian nuclear deal that is underway between the two countries.
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