After two days of intense negotiations, the United States said
Friday it had failed to reach agreement with India on the
separation of its civilian and military nuclear programs.
The White House is still hoping for an accord before President
Bush visits New Delhi next week, but said the success or failure of
the trip does not hang on the nuclear agreement.
"We would like to get it before the trip," national security
adviser Stephen Hadley said. "If we can, great. If we can't, we'll
continue to negotiate it after the trip."
Bush departs for India on Tuesday and his official schedule
there begins on Thursday. The president also will visit Pakistan
before beginning the long flight home on Saturday.
Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns spent two days in
difficult talks in New Delhi and returned home Friday to report on
the negotiations.
"We're making progress, but we're not yet there," Hadley said at
a briefing on Bush's trip. "The Indians, hopefully, will have an
opportunity from their end to see where we are, and we would expect
those negotiations will continue by phone, document and the like,
probably up to the president's visit."
Both sides want an agreement, Hadley said, but "it's important
to have a good agreement that works for the Indians, works for the
United States, will be acceptable to our Congress and to the
Nuclear Suppliers Group" of nations that export nuclear
material.
The nuclear cooperation agreement has been billed as the
cornerstone of a warming US-India alliance.
There is opposition in India to opening the country's secretive
nuclear industry. In the United States, critics argue that the
administration is rewarding bad behavior since India has refused to
sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and defied the world by
conducting nuclear weapons tests in 1998. Any agreement faces stiff
opposition in Congress.
Asked what was blocking an agreement, Hadley said: "It's just
getting some clarification from the Indian side about what's in the
civil side and what's on the military side. Not only in terms of
what exists now, at this time, but what are going to be the ground
rules going forward. There's a lot of technical aspects to it."
(Chinadaily.com via agencies February 25, 2006)
