Mar 25 2008
Pranab Mukherjee discusses N-deal with Bush!
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee met United States President George W Bush on Monday to hold a talk on civil nuclear deal and other related issues. It was Mukherjee’s first visit to Washington as the External Affairs Minister.
The meeting went smoothly at the Oval Office at White House and both the leaders discussed the prime issues on N-deal at afternoon and last for around 35-minutes.
Ambassador of India Ronen Sen, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, Deputy Chief of the Indian Mission Raminder Singh Jassal and the Joint Secretary (Americas) of the Ministry of External Affairs Gayatri Kumar were also present in the meeting. Present with Bush were his Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and his National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley.
All the details are not disclosed about the meeting but Bush and Mukherjee are said to have discussed the width and depth of the United States-India relations that included the civilian nuclear initiative.
“You will know tomorrow from the minister” was all that a senior official would say when asked about the details of the Mukherjee-Bush meeting.
Earlier to this crucial meeting, Rice and Mukherjee also met on Monday at Foggy Bottom earlier in the morning. It was told that meeting was basically confined to regional issues of interest to the two sides and that a lot more was slated to be discussed in the evening, including the civilian nuclear initiative.
“We will continue to work on that agreement,” Rice said after meeting Mukherjee.
“The Indians are now in a process of working with the International Atomic Energy Agency and we will follow that progress and we will have further discussions on that matter,” she added.
