Saran, Burns to fix PM agenda

India will emphasise on civilian nuclear energy cooperation while the US is likely to focus on additional non-proliferation commitments by Delhi.

Nuclear talks between the sides have been going well of late but “remain inconclusive”, the sources said.

National Security Adviser M K Narayanan is in Washington trying to narrow nuclear differences. The sources are “cautiously optimistic” that the remaining political distance can be bridged by the time Singh arrives in Washington.

Nuclear cooperation has been at the top of the agenda for nearly five years. In January 2004, the two sides announced the “Next Steps in Strategic Partnership” that proposed reciprocal steps on expanded technological cooperation and non-proliferation.

The US is expected to take a more favourable view of cooperation in civilian nuclear and space programmes, missile defence, high technology trade. India, in turn, was to tighten controls over the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

Progress has been incremental while senior Bush Administration officials suggested earlier this year that the NSSP framework had been too narrowly conceived.

They proposed speeding up high technology cooperation with India as part Washington’s new commitment to assist Delhi in becoming a major world power.

During their brief meeting in Moscow in May, on the margins of celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, Singh and President George W. Bush underlined the importance of civilian nuclear energy cooperation amid rapidly rising price of oil.

While Bush has sent out strong signals of political intent on nuclear energy cooperation, the bureaucracies on both sides will have to overcome a welter of regulations and accumulated positions of the past to clinch a substantive nuclear agreement.

The nuclear issue is being addressed at different levels and is being coordinated by Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia and US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman. Saran and Burns are also likely to review the state of play on UN reform, including the Security Council expansion.

India, which is part of the G-4 group eyeing permanent membership, is pressing ahead with plans to introduce an ambitious framework resolution on Security Council expansion next month.

The Bush Administration has hinted at support for India’s candidature but is committed only to a limited expansion of the Security Council.