N-agreement 'almost done', says Burns

The external affairs ministry and the US state department went into a huddle today over the 123 Agreement to be negotiated between the two countries, but not before US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns struck an optimistic note saying that the agreement, which would operationalise the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement, was "almost done."

After arriving in New Delhi, Burns had a short meeting with Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon. Talking to the media, Burns hoped that this meeting would be the clincher as far as the agreement was concerned. "We are on the cusp of a fantastic opportunity," he said.

"I think it represents the most ambitious proposal that we put forward in 30 years," Burns said. "It allows us to correct the major problem in Indian relations. It delivers India-US relations, it delivers India from its nuclear isolation," he said.

Indian officials were more concerned with what the Americans would bring to the table.

Richard Stratford, director at the Office of Nuclear Energy, Safety and Security in the US state department accompanying Burns, is the "technical" person who met Ambassador S Jaishankar, India's High Commissioner to Singapore, to sort out the technical details in the agreement. Jaishankar has been roped in because of his technical acumen.

He had also been chosen to make a presentation to the Nuclear Suppliers' Group on India's behalf.

Sources in the ministry confirm that the main meeting between Burns and Shivshankar Menon will take place on Friday and that both officials may be expected to come out with something solid on Saturday. Minister for External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee will also be returning to Delhi on Friday morning.

The major sticky points in the agreement refer to India's right to reprocess fuel to power its three-stage nuclear programme, the withdrawal of all nuclear fuel and hardware from India if it tests a nuclear device, the right to keep a strategic reserve of nuclear fuel and a reasonable fuel assurance by the US.