With the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) all set to meet in Vienna for a second time tomorrow to consider a waiver for India, the US has said it will not "give up the ship" and push forward for the agreement.
State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said the US believed the deal is in the interests of global non-proliferation efforts and something that is worthy of NSG support.
"We're going to continue to work within the group and work with individual states to try to move it forward," he told the daily press briefing.
"...We're not giving up the ship at all. It's a very tight series of deadlines that were out there, in terms of working this through the international system, working it through our Congress," McCormack said.
He said that the United States will be represented by Undersecretary for Political Affairs Bill Burns and acting Undersecretary John Rood at the NSG meeting in Vienna on September 4 and 5.
The 45-nation grouping will consider a draft which is being presented after amendments following demands by at least 15 countries during the August 21-22 meeting.
The spokesman said the US is in touch with other members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group and will continue to move the case forward.
"We believe that this is an issue in which the NSG should act and should move forward," McCormack said.
"But, again, there's a lot of hard diplomacy that goes -- goes into that in getting a consensus within the group," the senior State Department official said.
