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US-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama picked up Sen Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate on Saturday. Biden, an influential Congressman supporting landmark Indo-US nuclear deal, has not only served as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee across the last 30 years but also as head of the Judiciary Committee, with its jurisdiction over anti-crime legislation, Supreme Court nominees and Constitutional issues.

Obama, the first black candidate to lead a major US political party’s presidential ticket disclosed his choice after a long political suspense as other contenders gradually fell away, media reports said.

Biden, 65, who had suggested that helping India to meet its growing energy needs will be in the interest of the US is currently serving out his sixth term. He also ran for the 1988 and this year’s Democratic presidential nomination but dropped out. He was first elected to the Senate in 1972 at the age of 29.

But he has tolerated severe criticism from his Republican rival John McCain, a veteran Arizona senator, combat pilot and former Vietnam prisoner of war, over what Republicans contends is his lack of national security experience and his calls for a 16-month withdrawal of US combat forces from Iraq. His choice of running mate clearly is intended to counter some of that criticism.

Biden will make his first big speech as the vice presidential candidate on Wednesday, the third night of the Democratic convention.

Tags: Barack Obama, biden, joe biden, N-deal, Politics, US, US democracy, US presidency, vice president

Pakistan has demanded N-deal with US similar to that of Indo-US deal. Ahead of the IAEA meeting on Friday, Pak PM Yousaf Raza Gilani, while his visit to US, has said that he also expects an India-like civil nuclear deal from the US.

At a gathering under the aegis of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Middle East Institute, Gilani added, “there should be no preferential, there should be no discrimination. If they want to give such nuclear status to India, we expect the same for Pakistan.”

The IAEA Board of Governors will meet in Vienna on Friday in a crucial session to consider for approval a key step for operation of the Indo-US nuclear deal.

If the 35-member Board approves the India-specific safeguards agreement by consensus leading to the signing of an unprecedented document, it would pave the way for India’s integration into the world of nuclear commerce.

According to a newspaper, the prime minister said that the government wanted to have cordial relations with all its neighbors, including India and Afghanistan, considering it a guarantee to regional peace.

“With India, we want to resolve all issues including the core issue of Kashmir,” he said when asked about the relationship with its eastern neighbors. He added that Pakistan had good trade ties with India.

Gilani also show his concern over terrorism and extremism, Pak-US relations including the economy and the scope of democracy in the country.

Tags: India, India US, Indo US, Indo USA, N-deal, Nuclear deal, Nuke Deal, Pak, Pakistan

The much awaited Left-United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coordination meeting over the Indo-US Civil Nuclear Agreement ended on Wednesday evening without a decision. After a 90-minute meeting of the 15-member committee, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and CPM leader Sitaram Yechury said that the committee will come to a conclusion on IAEA safeguards in its next meeting, for which they failed to mention a date.

Its ninth meeting of Left-UPA over the crucial Indo-US nuke deal which went undecidedly against the backdrop of the standoff between the two sides on the Indo-US nuclear deal. It was reported that all members except NCP leader Sharad Pawar attended the meeting where both the sides stuck to their respective positions even while maintaining that they did not favor early elections.

The two sides met at the residence of External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, government’s chief negotiator, to discuss the latest situation arising out of government’s determination to approach the IAEA for finalizing an India-specific safeguards agreement.

The committee completed its discussions on all aspects of the agreement. Sources told that the next meeting of the committee is likely to be held in mid July.

Earlier, Pranab Mukherjee met Prime Minister at his residence (second time in a day) to give details of the situation before the crucial UPA-Left coordination committee meeting at 5 pm. Before this, Mukherjee had called on PM Manmohan Singh at the PMO to discuss the issue. The meeting came after the Left parties told Mukherjee earlier in the day that they would not accept a compromise formula that would have allowed the government to finalize the safeguards agreement required for the nuke deal, with the IAEA.

Left has dismissed the formula as “meaningless” hours before a crucial meet of the UPA-Left co-ordination committee to iron out differences on the civil nuclear deal. The Left parties maintained that they ‘understood’ the safeguards agreement would be on auto pilot mode for progress on the deal immediately after the IAEA Board of Governors approved it.  Later, Karat, Mukherjee and Antony had gone to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s residence to apprise her of the Left’s stand. Mukherjee also met UPA allies at 4:00 pm ahead of the UPA-Left committee meet.

Karat, meanwhile, also met Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, with the latter reiterating that his party would take a final decision on the nuke deal after next week’s UNPA meet.

Tags: , Congress, IAEA, India, India US, Left Parties, N-deal, Nuclear deal, Nuke Deal, UPA, USA

The United States has denied any change in the 123 Agreement to make it acceptable to a section of the political opposition in India.

State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack told that New Delhi will have to work through the political process and in the framework of the text agreed upon. No changes will be entertained further.

“The last that I heard this really is an issue that is in the Indian government’s court. If they are going to resolve the — their issues within their own political system, it is going to be up to them to do so based on the agreement that is on the table,” McCormack said while replying to a query that asked if there could be major changes in the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement that could make some in India act on the issue.

Tags: India, N-deal, Nuclear, US, USA

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.

Tags: Atomic Energy, Bush, External Affiars, India, Misiter, N-deal, Nuclear deal, Pranab Mukherjee, Shivshankar Menon, US