Click to play videoNew Delhi: Congress President Sonia Gandhi recently highlighted the importance of nuclear energy in view of rising global oil prices.
“Nuclear energy has gained much importance in view of the steep rise in global oil prices,” she had said in a public address in Assam.
But many say Government's window for the nuclear deal has already closed.
Currently the draft International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) safeguards agreement is awaiting Left approval and then clearance by the IAEA board — two mandatory stages which India needs to pass through in order to approach the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) or the US Congress.
However, American strategic analyst Ashley Tellis, one of the prime movers behind the deal, suggests that given the delay, the deal already appears to be dead.
"Even if the Indian Government was suddenly to turn around and get the IAEA stage completed, there would be no time for the remaining two stages," he said.
Irrespective of that view, though, there has been a steady stream of statements on the nuclear deal from Washington seeking to try and nudge India forward.
The latest in calling upon New Delhi to make tough choices and implement the civil nuclear deal is Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez.
Earlier, former US secretary of state, Henry Kissinger had said,” My only point is that we Americans have said what we had to say about it, and if it cannot be managed at this moment, we will find other ways to go about it."
The statements clearly highlight Bush administration’s need to salvage some credit from an otherwise empty foreign policy basket, but some say it could also be a last ditch attempt to set the agenda ahead of the last UPA-Left meeting on the nuclear deal.
(With Indira Kannan in New York)
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