Published: Saturday, June 02, 2007
New Delhi, June 2: India and the US today moved "much closer" to an agreement to operationalise the civil nuclear deal but persisting "gaps" prevented a breakthrough after the latest round of discussions.
After three days of tough negotiations, India said "some distance" was still to be travelled before the two sides could finalise the 123 agreement that would reflect the July 15, 2005 Joint Statement, March 2, 2006 Separation Plan and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statements to Parliament.
The talks, that included technical-level discussions, could not result in any breakthrough particularly because of differences on whether India should get the right to reprocess spent nuclear fuel. ~snip~
In view of persisting differences, any major announcement is unlikely after the Prime Minister meets US President George W Bush in Germany next week on the sidelines of the G-8 Summit. The issue would be discussed during that meeting. ~snip~
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