US and Indian officials are racing to put the finishing touches to a nuclear reprocessing deal that – if completed – will be the big ticket agreement that both sides would like to see at the heart of this “state” visit, already marred by the US president’s unexpected nod to China’s role in resolving the Indo-Pak issue and bereft of the drama and excitement that marked the Bush-Manmohan bonhomie.
With less than 24 hours to go before the prime minister departs for Washington, via Geneva, however, officials here hve indicated that the deal has stalled, and are downplaying expectations that any agreement is possible during the prime minister’s four-day visit. They are well aware that a rush to reprocess spent fuel in a safeguard facility overseen by the US, could be seen as a concession to the Obama administration, which is completely behind the Indo-US nuclear agreement as the previous Bush administration had been.
While the contrast between the high-octane Bush visit to Delhi and Manmohan Singh’s reciprocal visit to Washington in 2005 and the decidedly cooler Obama-Singh chemistry has already been remarked on, officials here said that President Obama’s enormous respect for Singh’s management of the economy, his tackling of a rough neighborhood in the aftermath of 26/11 and India’s emerging power status, is part of the reason that Singh is being accorded the rare honor of a first state visit.
India has announced two nuclear park sites – in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh for the American companies. The US is unable to move forward with the nuke agreement unless it can agree to allow New Delhi to reprocess spent nuclear fuel, bu the Obama administration is insisting that New Delhi give it an assurance that it will not divert reprocessed fuel to its weapons programme or unsafeguarded civil nuclear facilities. India is also being asked to pass a civil nuclear liability legislation in parliament that will limit the damages to be borne by US nuclear companies that invest in India in case of a nuclear accident.