New Delhi, February 23
India and the US today informally probed each other’s positions on their July 18 civil nuclear energy deal. However, the formal and more substantive talks are slated tomorrow when the two sides would get to know whether they would be in a position to reach an agreement during President George W. Bush’s India visit, beginning March 1.

The visiting Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Mr Nicholas Burns, had a brainstorming session with the Indian side led by Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran. It is understood that the talks boiled down to the core issue of how many of its nuclear facilities India was willing to place under international safeguards and whether the Americans found it “a credible, transparent and defensible plan to separate (India’s) civilian and military nuclear programmes”, as articulated by President Bush in his yesterday’s address at Asia Society.

Mr Saran and National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan briefed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh later in the evening about today’s talks. The meeting lasted more than half an hour.

A senior official of the Government of India told The Tribune tonight that the talks were “going well” and were on course. He said though the talks were heading favourably, it was difficult to pre-judge the outcome of these talks as these were highly technical and complicated in nature.

On his part, Mr Burns told reporters in the afternoon that there were “still some remaining differences between us and those differences need to be worked out”. Asked if the deal would be finalised during President Bush’s visit, Mr Burns said: “We simply don’t know if it will happen before President Bush’s visit. We are trying our best.”

New Delhi’s sense is that the talks are on right track and the two sides had narrowed down their differences considerably. The UPA Government is also hopeful that the nuclear deal may be formally announced during Mr Bush’s visit and if, for certain technical reasons, it was not possible, a declaration of intent to this would definitely be announced.

The nuclear agreement would be ready for implementation only after the US Congress gives its nod for bringing in necessary legislation.