Amidst efforts to get Congressional approval for the Indo-US nuclear deal, US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns spoke to Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and they decided to hold further discussions in London next week to go over all aspects of the agreement.
Saran and Burns met several times before US President George Bush's visit to India in March and were the stars who worked overtime to ensure a deal was struck when Bush was India.
The senior Bush administration official, who spoke to Saran on Tuesday, said he will be in London for other business.
"I had a very good discussion with Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and we talked about all aspects of this and we agreed to meet next week in London. We agreed to meet to go over all aspects with the US-India agreement so that we can move this along on both sides," Burns said.
On the subject on nuclear testing by India, he said there was a commitment from New Delhi for a moratorium on testing and referred to the July 2005 visit of the Indian Prime Minister and the Joint Statement issued at the time.
"If you look at the Joint statement issued by both governments there is a reference in the Joint Statement about India's moratorium on nuclear testing.
"That was a very important commitment made to our government by the Indian government and it provided some of the backdrop to the negotiations that subsequently took place towards the separation plan that India engaged in. It is a very significant commitment, this moratorium on nuclear testing," he said in response to a question.
Burns, who has started a fresh round of meetings with key Congress members to push the case for the deal, said administration officials will be discussing various ideas on ways to bring about a positive outcome on Capitol Hill for the legislation.
Beginning the series of discussions with the Ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee Tom Lantos on Wednesday, Burns said various ideas would be exchanged on how best to go forward on the current legislation.
Speaking at the Carnegie Endowment on Tuesday, Burns refused to give details of the proposed meeting with Lantos and said, "It will not be appropriate for me to give a detailed public exposition of our views on his legislation before we have the courtesy of giving him those views privately."
On discussions with key Congress members, he said, "We had always foreseen the need for two steps in this process. When the administration talked to senior members in the House and the Senate some months ago, we all agreed that there had to be at the conclusion of hearings an action by the Congress of the beginning of the process which we hope will be Congressional support on the civil nuclear agreement.
"And then there had to be action in the end when the 123 agreement was presented by the President to the Congress for a vote on that. So we had already foreseen the beginning and the end of the process," he said in response to a question.
Burns said Congressman Lantos and others have given new ideas on which there will be a discussion.
Observing that the administration has put its best case forward, he said now it is up to the Congress to take a decision. "We will be working with members of the Congress to try to gain as much support as we possibly can. It is up to Congress to establish a legislative calendar and that is what we will be talking to members of Congress this week and next week".
Last week, at a House International Relations Committee hearing, Lantos said he will be proposing legislation that will bring the current and pending legislation on some sort of a fast track but only after Congress has seen the Bilateral Nuclear Agreement (the 123 Agreement) and the Agreement between India and the IAEA on Safeguards.
Speaking to reporters, Burns also tried to play down the notion that the 123 Agreement, which was seen as a mere "technical" one a few months ago, is becoming a contentious issue in Congress and stressed that the substance of this treaty has already been negotiated.
"The 123 Agreement, the US-India Civil Nuclear Agreement is a reflection of all the decisions that we have already made. In the July 18 Joint Statement and the March 2 Agreement between our governments, we have already tackled and wrestled with and agreed upon the major substantive issues.
"This bilateral agreement is a reflection of that. And in that sense there is no new ground to be broken or to be negotiated. There will be nothing of surprise in that agreement to you, me or members of Congress. But it is the last step of the process," Burns maintained.
"We do still believe that Congress should look at the agreement that has been put before Congress and we hope that there can be a vote," he said.
Stressing on the importance of the IAEA safeguards agreement and the NSG deliberations, he said "We are still hopeful that India will align itself with the Australian Group, the Wassenar Group and the Proliferation Security Initiative. At the end of all of that comes this Bilateral Treaty which reflects all the work that has been done".
"The substance has already been negotiated," he added.
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