Indo-US ties have touched a ‘‘new level’’, and the landmark nuclear agreement between the two countries is ‘‘well in train’’, Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Christina Rocca has said, while brushing aside the notion that Washington is ‘‘moving goalposts’’ and setting new conditions for implementing the agreement. ‘‘We have begun conversation on the civilian nuclear cooperation.There will be meetings this month and next month where we’ll start talking a little more concretely about how the plan might look like, how we move forward,’’ she told PTI when asked about the July-18 agreement yet to be approved by the US Congress. ‘‘We are very busy with conversation on Capitol Hill, the thinktank, with the nuclear suppliers group, international partners and friends.,’’ Rocca said, while noting that there are ‘‘lot of questions’’ in the US Congress.‘‘I am optimistic as to where we are going,’’ she said adding that the civilian nuclear arrangement is ‘‘well in train’’ and hoping that legislation will come about in early 2006. The agreement was signed in Washington on July 18 between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George W Bush, under which the Unites States implicitly recognised India as a nuclear weapons state and agreed to supply fuel for the Tarapore reactor following a series of commitments by New Delhi, including that of separating civilian and military facilities. Rocca said the July-18 meeting was in many ways the culmination of ‘‘four years of hard work together, to take the relationship to a whole new level. So, now we have a new agenda that is on a totally different level..’’ ‘‘A lot of things are now given. Our political conversations are so drastically different from that four years ago. We are now on a new level,’’ she said. ‘‘It was a pretty ambitious agenda that we set on July 18 and we’ve already started working on a number of things.’’ She disagreed with the argument that Washington and New Delhi had moved ‘‘backwards’’ in that they first came to a general agreement on the nuclear deal and then sought to work on details and flush out the political dynamics.‘‘I don’t agree with that perspective. What we agreed on is a mutual goal that we will work towards. If you look at the language it’s very clear.It’s a very big change in the US policy.This is a big step forward. Had we done it the other way around, it would not have worked. There is no doubt about it,’’ she said.‘‘.Working out a deal like this means a lot of work on both sides and there is no argument there,’’ she said, adding, ‘‘the dialogue (with US Congress) has begun. The various elements that need to be done, certainly on our side, are moving along.’’ Rocca also brushed aside the notion that the Bush administration has resorted to moving goalposts in the aftermath of the accord on the civilian nuclear deal or that it is asking New Delhi to do something ‘‘more’’. ‘‘No. Absolutely not. The language is carefully drafted.I would absolutely say that no goalposts were moved on both sides we are not asking anything of India that we are not asking ourselves, that we are not willing to do ourselves.’’‘‘There is no question of moving goalposts. There are people opposed to it who would like to frame it that way. I think they are wrong,’’ Rocca countered. She also disagreed with a thinking that Bush should postpone his India visit, tentatively scheduled for early next year, if the civilian nuclear deal is not concretised. ‘‘I could not disagree more,’’ Rocca said. ‘‘There are so many things going on in the US-India relationship on so many different fronts that are very good. We are really happy he’s going. This is a relationship that has momentum, and the time to go is exactly now. The relationship is not about this one (nuclear) issue,’’ she said.
