India-US nuclear deal almost collapsed: Rice

New Book Former US Secretary of State says she told Bush it is not going to work

LALIT K JHA

The India-US nuclear deal had virtually collapsed as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told President George W Bush it was not going to work and the entire administration had given up on it.

I called the President Bush. It isnt going to work. Singh just cant make it happen, I said. Too bad, he answered and didnt press further. Later that night Nick Nicholas Burns-the then Under Secretary of State called to tell me what I already knew8230; there wouldnt be a deal, writes the then Secretary of State Rice.

Rice describes in detail in her forthcoming book No Higher Honor the riveting hours before the joint statement made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Bush on July 18,2005 on the framework for the agreement that almost brought UPA I government on the brink in July,2008. The Foreign Minister tried,but the Prime Minister just cant sign on to the agreement, Burns is quoted as telling Rice after Natwar Singh made a final pitch for the agreement with the Prime Minister.

As Rice woke up on the morning of the Bush-Singh meeting,she was tense but determined not to let this happen. She made a final effort to personally meet the PM and pitch for the deal.

Rice writes,I am not prepared to let this fail. Arrange for me to see the Prime Minister,I said. The meeting with the President was set for 10. How about breakfast at eight? Nick called while I was exercising to say the Prime Minister didnt want to meet.

Get the Foreign Minister, I answered. Natwar picked up the phone. My heart was beating pretty fast may be from the exercise,may be from the sense of an important initiative slipping through my fingers. Natwar,why wont the PM see me?

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He doesnt want to tell you no,he Natwar Singh said. Ive done my best. I told him that the United States wants to take this thirty-year millstone from around your neck. You should do it. But he cant sell it in New Delhi. I wasnt ready to surrender. Ask him again,I pleaded. A few minutes later,Natwar called to say that the Prime Minister would receive me at his hotel at 8 am, Rice wrote.

Rice went to the Willard Hotel,where the Prime Minister was staying,to meet him. But before going there,she called Bush that she was going to meet Singh to make a final effort.

Natwar Singh was the only other person in that room. Mr Prime Minister,this is the deal of a lifetime. You and President Bush are about to put US-Indian relations on a fundamentally new footing. I know its hard for you,but its hard for the President too. I didnt come here to negotiate the language only to ask you to tell your officials to get this done. And lets get it done before you see the President.

Prime Minister Singh,a mild-mannered man who speaks slowly and softly,pushed back and eventually gave his nod to his people to try again, Rice writes.