By IANS
New Delhi : Ahead of a crucial round of civil nuclear negotiations between India and the US next week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday discussed with President George W. Bush key issues connected with a bilateral nuclear pact.
"The two leaders expressed satisfaction at the strong India-US bilateral relations and spoke about the forthcoming discussions," a statement from the Prime Minister's Office said after telephonic talks between the two leaders.
"They were of the view that these discussions will reinforce our strong bilateral relations," the statement said.
During their conversation, Manmohan Singh and Bush said they looked forward to "continuing their own discussions at their next meeting", which is likely to happen in September when Manmohan Singh travels to the US to attend the UN General Assembly session.
National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan is expected to leave for Washington July 16 for talks on issues relating to a bilateral civil nuclear cooperation pact – also known as the 123 agreement – with his American counterpart Stephen Hadley. Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon will accompany Narayanan in this crucial round of talks.
This is the first time both sides have upgraded their 123 negotiations to the level of NSAs as contentious issues like reprocessing require politically empowered negotiators.
Narayanan and Hadley are going to discuss threadbare an Indian suggestion for setting up a standalone dedicated facility for reprocessing the US-origin fuel.
This suggestion was initially discussed informally between the two sides on the sidelines of the G-8 summit in Germany.
Other key issues that will figure prominently in the discussions would be the Indian insistence on iron-clad lifetime fuel guarantees for imported reactors and fine-tuning right language in the 123 text to accommodate what India considers its sovereign right to conduct a nuclear test.
The US, on its part, will press for the right of return of all US-supplied nuclear equipment and fuel in case of India conducting a nuclear test.
If the meeting between the NSAs achieves some significant progress on contentious issues, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may visit India next month for a final round of negotiations, sources said.
Manmohan Singh said recently that "one or two issues" still remained in the way of finalising the 123 agreement and hoped that the deal would be concluded soon.
Last month, Rice expressed hope that the 123 pact, that will lead to resumption of nuclear commerce between the two countries after a gap of three decades, could be concluded by the end of the year.