US team landing for Bush visit groundwork

India and the US may not have officially announced the dates for the visit of US President George W Bush, but White House has already begun ...

India and the US may not have officially announced the dates for the visit of US President George W Bush, but White House has already begun preparations and is sending a delegation over the weekend to hold preliminary discussions.

As of now, Bush is expected to be here on March 1 after India pointed out that February 28 would be Budget day here. Currently, the plan is for a three-day visit and the team will be holding discussions at Hyderabad House on Saturday on arrangements connected to the trip.

The team, sources said, will also include US Secret Service officials who will address security issues with their counterparts besides other arrangements. They will identify their requirements and make an initial assessment ahead of the trip. Usually, Washington does start preparations at least a couple of months ahead of a Presidential visit due to security concerns. And many such teams will follow as the visit draws closer.

During the visit of former US President Bill Clinton, Secret Service teams landed here weeks in advance with sophisticated equipment. The entire Maurya Sheraton Hotel was taken over by US authorities for the visit.

The White House team will arrive here around the time Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and US Under Secretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns hold talks on the agenda for the visit as well as implementing the nuclear deal. The hope is to firm up a civil nuclear cooperation agreement that can be signed between the two countries during the visit. Burns, who reached Mumbai today from London, will also brief India on discussions over the Iran nuclear issue between US, EU-3 Britain, France and Germany, Russia and China. An emergency session of the IAEA is to be held soon to discuss referral of the Iran matter to the UN Security Council.

While several issues on the nuclear deal still have to be firmed up, the preliminary visit by a White House team is being seen as a clear indicator that there has been progress on most issues in the past months for the Bush visit to take place. Yet, the fate of the nuclear deal is far from clear as both countries continue to encounter hurdles at home.

There is also a suggestion for Bush to visit another place and the frontrunner so far is Hyderabad but this is still to be firmed up. Other options are also being discussed at the moment.