Condoleezza Rice to visit India next week

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September 27, 2008 16:23 IST

With the India-United States nuclear agreement likely to get Congressional nod by early next week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be in New Delhi on October 3 on a day-long visit, during which the two sides are expected to sign the 123 agreement.

House of Representatives postpones N-deal vote

Rice, whose visit has been pending for over a year mainly because of uncertainty over the nuclear deal, will hold talks with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on bilateral and regional issues.

The two leaders are also expected to sign the 123 agreement if it gets clearance from the US Congress by then, sources said today.

Indo-US N-deal on 'hold' in US Senate

The US House of Representatives is to vote on the agreement today while the Senate is expected to take up the
matter on Monday.

The agreement, initialed on August 1 last year, was earlier expected to be signed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President George W Bush during the former's visit to Washington on Thursday.

Ensure India, US complete their journey: Rice

However, it could not materialise as the Congressional nod got delayed due to procedures.

Prior to Rice's visit to India, Mukherjee will be in New York from Sunday on a four-day visit. He will attend the
ongoing UN General Assembly and meet leaders of some countries.

Rice has been leading the push in getting the deal approved by the US Congress and has been working with key lawmakers.

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