India, US review lifting ban on trade in atomic field
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
New Delhi, July 14, IRNA
India-US-Nuke
Amid hope of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal getting approval of the Congress by the month-end, the two countries have reviewed the progress and discussed the next steps in the process of lifting ban on trade with India in the atomic field.
Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, who met in Paris last night, also discussed the way forward towards concluding a bilateral nuclear agreement or 123 agreement, PTI report said here Friday quoting official sources.
The two countries have held two rounds of expert-level discussions on the 123 agreements and covered "60 per cent" of the negotiations.
With both the countries aiming to conclude the agreement by October, further expert-level talks are expected shortly.
The civil nuclear deal, which entails change of US law to enable the country to have trade with India in the atomic field, has already been approved by the key international relations committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
It is now expected to be taken up by both Houses of the US Congress soon for debate and voting.
The Bush Administration has expressed the hope that the bill will be cleared by the month-end.
Saran and Burns also deliberated upon the progress in the negotiations on proposed India-specific safeguards agreement between India and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the sources said.
2160/1420
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
