Albright8217;s date with India

For weeks, nay months, the Ministry of External Affairs has been making preparations, with a mixture of wariness and growing confidence, fo...

For weeks, nay months, the Ministry of External Affairs has been making preparations, with a mixture of wariness and growing confidence, for the visit of the high-ranking US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to India. When 8220;Amma Albright8221;, as the foreign office has affectionately dubbed her, finally goes into the mother-of-all-talks with the Prime Minister and his team tomorrow, it will be a cathartic experience. The 8220;strategic dialogue8221; is expected to encompass cross-border terrorism from Pakistan in the Kashmir valley, trade and economic issues like the balance of payments and opening up the insurance sector in India, UN reform, as well as respective attitudes on the non-proliferation-disarmament question.

Simply, even if the United Front Government doesn8217;t last the week, in this visit lies the potential for both sides to straighten the past account, tell each other about their bottom lines and discuss possible convergence, for example in the Asia-Pacific region and Central Asia.8220;India and the US have had one date,8221; said a senior western diplomat here, referring to the visit last month of senior US official Thomas Pickering, 8220;they8217;re going to have another, and now let8217;s see if they kiss or not8221;.

The diplomat added: 8220;There are no preconceived notions about what success means. Both sides are trying to get to know one another. It8217;s a slow process of touching and feeling.8221;Indian officials, much more circumspect about their feelings with the US, chose only to react in shades of grey.

8220;Fortunately, those who are supposed to be ready to meet Albright, are ready.8221;In the last week, meanwhile, the Americans have stirred in an interesting bait in the talks cauldron with India. US State department officials, briefing reporters in Washington, have said they will be keen on discussing possible civilian nuclear cooperation with New Delhi.

South Block is eyeing the unusual addition to the dialogue process with frank scepticism, publicly only saying they are 8220;ready to talk about anything8221; with Albright and her delegation.

Privately, though, the officials are aware that if the US, under considerable pressure from its domestic nuclear industry, is willing to sell civilian nuclear reactors to India 8212; as it has done recently to China 8212; the dynamics of the very game that has kept India out of this exclusive club may be forced to change.

Nevertheless, the officials dismiss any unstated riders or strings that may come attached to this offer. 8220;We are ready to discuss plant-specific safeguards for nuclear reactors that the Americans may want to sell us, on the lines of the IAEA safeguards that we have accepted for the reactors the Russians will soon begin to build in Kudamkulam, Tamil Nadu,8221; one source said.8220;But we will never agree to any covert or overt assurances on formalising our nuclear restraint, as scholars from some US think-tanks have recently suggested. That would effectively mean that we close our nuclear option,8221; the source added.Albright, who arrived tonight after spending less than a day in Islamabad, will continue with her environment-related scheduled programme in Agra tomorrow morning, return around noon and immediately go in for talks and lunch with Prime Minister I K Gujral.