By Arun Kumar, IANS
Washington : US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is expected to visit India, probably for the signing of the 123 agreement to implement the India-US nuclear deal hammered out here last week.
“I expect that she will (travel to India) at some point. I can’t tell you when. That’s not been scheduled, but she looks forward to travelling to India again,” state department spokesman Sean McCormack said Tuesday in response to a question if Rice was going to India to sign the agreement
The US official declined to go beyond the joint statement issued at the end of the India-US talks here last week claiming “substantial progress made on the outstanding issues in the 123 agreement” and that the issue would be “referred to the two governments for final review.”
“Well, we put out a statement on Friday about the state of discussions between the Indian and the American side on this. At this point, I don’t have anything to add to that statement. I would expect in the coming days, perhaps we will, but right now, I don’t,” McCormack said when asked if all outstanding issues had been resolved.
Indian officials, on the other hand, have said on record “the agreement has been finalised” but could not be made public before its approval by the cabinet committee on security.