After enactment of a law by the US to allow civil nuclear trade with India, the two countries are set to resume negotiations on the proposed agreement to operationalise it, with prime minister's Special Envoy Shyam Saran arriving in Washington for talks to sort out some nagging issues.
Saran arrived in Washington on Wednesday evening to hold talks with Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns amid concerns in India over certain aspects of the Henry J Hyde US-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act, which was signed into a law in December last.
The two sides are expected to discuss the timetable of talks over the 123 Agreement, which will operationalise the civil nuclear deal, US ambassador to India David Mulford said in Delhi. They are also expected to exchange drafts of the proposed agreement.
Saran and Burns will have deliberations on conceptual issues that have an impact and bearing on the negotiations on the agreement.
India has made it clear that it has 'genuine concerns' over the certain elements in the Hyde Act, including conditional access to reprocessing technology and reprocessing of spent fuel, and these need to be addressed in the 123 agreement.
New Delhi has also conveyed to Washington that it was not ready to accept any legally-binding provision on future nuclear testing in the 123 agreement and that it would not agree to fissile material control under any bilateral pact but only under any multilateral framework.
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