Jaswant8217;s high-level date on Friday

WASHINGTON, June 9: After weeks of recrimination following India's nuclear tests, there is finally some perceptible movement towards a const...

WASHINGTON, June 9: After weeks of recrimination following India8217;s nuclear tests, there is finally some perceptible movement towards a constructive engagement between Washington and New Delhi. The BJP Government8217;s principal foreign and defence policy spokesman and putative foreign minister Jaswant Singh is expected to have a luncheon meeting with Acting Secretary of State Strobe Talbott in Washington on Friday in what will be the first high-level political engagement between the two sides after the nuclear imbroglio.

Indian officials say the importance of the meeting cannot be overstressed, given the nearly four weeks of unremitting animosity displayed by many Clinton administration mandarins in the aftermath of the tests. Although things have improved considerably over the last fortnight 8212; after a brief trough when Pakistan tested 8212; this will still be the first opportunity for the political leadership in New Delhi to convey to the administration here its short and long-term defence and nuclearpolicy.

Few Indian leaders are better qualified or suited for the tough job than Jaswant Singh, say Indian officials, who have been battling not just a mean-spirited administration, but also an adverse tide of public opinion.

In fact, Singh is currently in New York for a UN Conference on drugs. The Indian embassy here had not put Washington on the calendar till it was confident a significant enough meeting with the State Department could be stitched up.Singh will now meet Talbott, who is acting Secretary of State in the absence of Madeleine Albright, who will be away in London for the G-8 meeting. More importantly, Talbott has been made the pointman for the current South Asia crisis. Given his long association with arms control issues 8212; he was a senior editor with Time magazine and covered the START negotiations before joining the Clinton administration 8212; Talbott is expected to carry the dialogue to a new level where the two sides can discuss where to go from here, instead of wallowing in rancourlike they have been for the last four weeks.

Indian officials say the atmospherics between the two sides has improved considerably, although there are still plenty of wrinkles. The sanctions issue is still causing a great deal of heartburn, with the administration unable to offer a clear understanding as to where it is going to draw the line.

For instance, will sanctions prohibit US transactions with Indian banks, considering it a government entity since the Government of India holds a stake in most large banks in India? A Reserve Bank of India team which is currently in Washington at the invitation of the administration suddenly has its appointment with the US Security and Exchanges Board cancelled at the last moment on Monday, much to the chagrin of the Indian Embassy. It has been a rollercoaster, said a senior Indian diplomat.

Indian officials say the Singh-Talbott meeting can help iron out some of the wrinkles particularly if the message filters down that the two sides are now engagedconstructively. New Delhi understood that the administration is constrained by US law to impose sanctions, but that should not come in the way of other business.

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Jaswant Singh also has a raft of media events, including interviews with business magazines like Forbes and television appearances on Jim Lehrers News Hour and CNN International.

But he has no scheduled event in the Congress, which will be in recess when he gets here on Friday. He is also scheduled to address an Indian community meeting hosted by the National Federation of Indian Association in Washington on Saturday.

Chirac publicly differs with Clinton N-stand

WASHINGTON: French President Jacques Chirac has publicly differed with the United States on its policy of slapping nuclear-related sanctions on India and Pakistan and instead favoured a dialogue to persuade the two countries to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty CTBT.