We need to report to the Congress about the India-Iran ties. India does not have to worry about this, says US official.
Rice's concerns were over the bills in their current form. India believed this was a case of 'moving the goal-posts.'
"Chinese side has noted that during the deliberations in the NSG regarding US-India nuclear cooperation, some countries expressed concern and doubts," Jiang said.
As the United States continues to nudge it to conclude the civil nuclear deal at the earliest, India on Thursday said it is aware of the time-table but negotiations take its own time.
Contradicting Bharatiya Janata Party's views on the nuclear deal with the United States, former National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra has said India should go ahead with the agreement, failing which the country will have a 'severe loss of face' and suffer a setback to its atomic programme. Mishra said the deal should be concluded during the tenure of Bush administration as change of government in the US would make things difficult.
The composition of the Congress team clearly indicated that the party was prepared to argue the matter forcefully.
Projects worth over $20 billion, ranging from the decade-long Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline to various oil and gas exploration and production projects, are being re-considered, said officials in the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said the failure to consummate the Indo-US nuke deal would not jeopardise overall US-India relations. "It's very, very important to emphasise that India-US relations are multi-dimensional, multi-layered, multi-faceted. The Indo-US nuclear deal was neither the beginning and nor is it going to be the end of that," he said.
Australia's opposition leader Kevin Rudd on Friday said he would "tear up" any nuclear deal with India if he is elected to power this year.
In the face of the Left opposition, the Bush administration has refused to set a timeline for moving the Indo-US nuclear deal forward, saying it will start work towards operationalising the agreement when New Delhi is ready.
There is nothing to be worried about as bilateral ties are robust with solid foundations. Both are on the same page on the economic and defence/security ties bilaterally and globally and that shall continue irrespective of change in political dispensation in either country, points out Dr Rajaram Panda.
New book claims Amar Singh gave between 20 and 100 per cent of his entire net worth to the Clinton Foundation.
Speaking to media persons after the hearing where senior Bush Administration officials testified on the agreement, Dodd, asked the first question by rediff.com as to the bottom line vis-a-vis the possible approval of the deal by Congress by September 26, said, "The evidence in the past has been that there is a strong desire to reach agreement, and a clear understanding of the value and importance of this."
According to census data, Indian-Americans were the fastest-growing ethnic group in the 1990s, and remained one of the largest sources of legal immigration to the United States, the report noted.
"For each failure of the US in the region, the region has paid, India has paid and we will continue to pay."
The deal nearly did not happen but for a last-minute intervention by the American President.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should explain the reason behind their 'sudden volte face' on the nuclear deal, state Bharatiya Janata Party president L Ganesan said on Thursday. "Sonia Gandhi's remark that those who opposed the deal were working against the nation and the challenge by Manmohan Singh to Left parties to withdraw support on the issue, are still fresh in the minds of the people," he said.
Leader of the delegation B J Panda of the Biju Janata Dal said, "We still have the last mile left before the closure of the civilian nuclear deal."
"We have made the red lines clear ... We might have to backout if the NSG countries do not agree," M R Srinivasan, member of the Atomic Energy Commission, told PTI.
"Exactly two years later, the two nations have not only reached an agreement, but created a lifelong partnership between two nations that are committed to democratic principles and the idea of energy independence," he said.
In what diplomatic observers have described as "a make or break" round of negotiations, senior US and Indian officials held several hours of intense discussions at the State Department on Tuesday in an attempt to seal the 123 Agreement.
After Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's assertion that he will not put the government at stake over the Indo-US nuclear deal, scientists on Sunday hailed the stand saying the Centre has taken a sensible decision.
During the Saran-Burns meeting, the Indian side is expected to assess what steps the US government is taking to ensure that the deal is cleared by the Congress.
It is one of the three top priorities -- the other two being the Vietnam Trade Bill and Domestic Surveillance legislation.
Speaking at a programme in Kolkata on Tuesday night, he said that in the past, even the US has been appreciative of the fact that the Chabahar port has a larger relevance.
The Lok Sabha was adjounred till 1500 hours while the Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day.
It's intriguing that the prime minister now wants his American partner to help protect the Hindu minority in Bangladesh. That's conceding to the Americans a pre-eminence India has always contested, resented and feared, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
"If we are able to evolve a consensus then it will be possible to hasten the process (of taking the deal forward)," visiting External Affairs Minister Mukherjee told reporters, as the US nudged India into concluding the agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency and seek Nuclear Suppliers Group waiver by May to give Congress time to have a final vote on the deal.
"We welcome the decision of both governments to hold talks directly. The Foreign Secretary-level talks are a very good thing. It shows that both are interested in dealing with issues directly," Boucher said.
United States Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert O Blake, the Obama administration's point man for the subcontinent, still can't get over the Bharatiya Janata Party's opposition to the US-India civilian nuclear deal, despite the fact that it initiated and championed this accord during the time it was in power.
According to the WikiLeaks cables published by the Hindu, just five days before the United Progressive Alliance government faced a trust vote in 2008 over the Indo-US nuclear deal, a political aide to Congress politician Satish Sharma showed a United States embassy official 'two chests containing cash'. This, he described as part of a large stash of Rs 50 to Rs 60 crore the Congress party had put together to buy out votes from members of Parliament
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee rejected suggestions that the United Progressive Alliance government's capacity to operationalise the deal has weakened after the Congress' debacle in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections. "We would not like to proceed with the deal if the Left parties withdraw support from the government," he told Karan Thapar's India Tonight programme on CNBC.
Assistant US Secretary of State Robert Blake said that both the sides hoped to sign the end-use monitoring agreement in defence field under which the US would be able to supply sensitive technology to India.
Advani asserted that if his party is returned to power in the next general elections then it would scrap the deal and renegotiate with the US government.
Endorsing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's assurance to the country that the agreement would not in any way affect the strategic nuclear programme, Sonia said from the days of Jawaharlal Nehru, their policy was one of self-reliance.
At a time when the nuclear deal was being negotiated, the United States had tried to pressurise India over its ties with Iran and even objected to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to Delhi, saying it would give 'platform for an enemy of the US', according to Wikileaks documents. The cables sent by the then US ambassador David Mulford to the State Department make it clear that India did not want America to tell it "what to do, especially in public".
"If this (123 Agreement) was to go through, this will be a very big signal... It will enhance US investments into India. Not only US but also other countries like France, Germany... We are very hopeful that this will go through."
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