US efforts continue, Mulford meets Menon, Saran

New Delhi continues to convey that the process of political dialogue is underway and the Government is hopeful to convince opponents of the deal. In line with hope given out by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on his way back from South Africa, the Government is still pushing for a consensus to evolve.

For its part, the US is not applying pressure of a fixed timeline and is looking to take it step by step. The broad sense is that the deal has faced difficult situations in the last two years, but has managed to come this far and that the two sides must not give up so soon.

Statements coming from Washington too are keeping hopes afloat as the Government prepares for the October 22 meeting where it plans to address the concerns raised by the Left on the foreign policy front.