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US, India discuss nuclear agreement
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-01 09:18 The United States and India
were bargaining over the terms of a landmark nuclear agreement even as U.S.
President George W. Bush flew to New Delhi for the first visit there of his
presidency.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said sticking points remained in the
way of an agreement and singled out one particularly contentious subject.
"The one thing that is absolutely necessary is that any agreement would
assure that once India has decided to put a reactor under safeguard that it
remain permanently under safeguard," she said.
Rice and national security adviser Stephen Hadley briefed reporters on Air
Force One as Bush flew from Washington. He was due to arrive in India Wednesday
night.
The provision Rice cited would prevent India from transferring a reactor from
civilian to military status, thus exempting it from international inspections.
Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed an agreement in July that would
provide India with nuclear fuel for the country's booming but energy-starved
economy. The pact, which faces political opposition in both countries, hinges on
determining how to separate India's civilian and military nuclear facilities.
Rice said she was uncertain whether there would be an agreement during Bush's
trip but said the success or failure of his visit wouldn't be determined by
that. "We're still working on it," she said. "Obviously it would be an important
breakthrough" for the United States and India.
"We very much would like to have a deal," she said. "We are continuing to
work on it." She expressed confidence that if no deal results from this trip,
the U.S. and would get one later.
During a refueling stop in Shannon, Bush shook hands and posed for pictures
with U.S. Marines on their way to Kuwait. The young men, in camouflage uniforms,
lined up to shake hands with the commander in chief.
Rice said India's neighbor and nuclear rival, Pakistan, would not qualify for
the same sort of nuclear treatment as New Delhi. "Pakistan is not in the same
place as India," Rice said. "I think everybody understands that."
The United States says India has an unblemished record on nuclear
proliferation and has not sold its technology to any outsiders. Pakistan, on the
other hand, has acknowledged it has secretly sold nuclear technology to a number
of countries.
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