Washington, August 12
A senior American official lobbying for an expeditious approval of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal has held out the prospect of finding an "easy agreement" with the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), but said it could take "another" meeting after August to finalise the waiver for India.
On August 21, the US will seek a waiver for nuclear trade with India from the NSG, which consists of countries that export nuclear material and technology, before the deal is sent to the American Congress for ratification.
"If we find an easy agreement, may be we can finish our discussions, but it may take another meeting after that to get together," Richard Boucher, US assistant secretary of state for Central and South Asian affairs, said.
The Board of Governors of the IAEA adopted on August 1 by consensus a safeguards agreement for India, a key step for initiating civilian nuclear cooperation with New Delhi under the deal.
He agreed that "there are a lot of serious issues" involved before the work was done in the NSG. Some media reports have suggested that India and the US have planed a second meeting of the NSG in early September.
— PTI
