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US 'frustrated' over Indian demands on nuclear deal
Apr 21, 2007 - 10:52:42 AM
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Lower level India and US officials met in Capetown this week to discuss implementation of the deal.
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By DPA,
[RxPG] Washington, April 21 - The US has been 'frustrated' by the slow pace of progress on implementing the nuclear cooperation deal with India because of Indian demands that would require changes in US laws, the US State Department said.
'Fair to say that there's probably some frustration on the part of the administration as well as the Congress on the pace of these negotiations,' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday.
President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed the deal last year allowing the US to cooperate with the development of Indian civilian nuclear technology in a historic agreement between the two sides.
But negotiations to implement the deal have since hit a snag over 'a series of issues' raised by the Indian government that would require the US to change laws, McCormack said.
'We're not going to do that. We can't do that,' McCormack said, without offering details on the complications.
'We would suggest that we set aside that group of issues, and let's focus on areas where the two governments can negotiate and come to agreement,' he added.
Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon will be in Washington Monday and Tuesday to meet with US Undersecretary Nicholas Burns, who led US negotiations to forge the deal, in an effort to jump-start the process, McCormack said.
'They're going to explore ways that we can energize the discussions so that we can get this done,' McCormack said.
Lower level India and US officials met in Capetown this week to discuss implementation of the deal.
'Those discussions moved forward, but they didn't quite yield the results that we had hoped for,' McCormack said.
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