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A few hours after the Left parties pulled out their support to Congress led UPA government, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday announced that the UPA government will have to seek trust vote of confidence on the issue of very controversial and crucial Indo-US nuclear deal.

UPA government who announced to approach the IAEA to finalize the safeguards agreement will move for the same only after winning the trust votes.

After holding a talk with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is in Japan to attend the G8 meet, Pranab said while talking to the reporters that the government will seek vote of confidence as soon as it receives a formal communication from President Pratibha Patil.

The normal Monsoon Session of Parliament will be convened from August 11 as informed by Mukherjee.

Replying to the Left parties’ complaint that UPA is hiding full text of safeguard agreement, Mukherjee said, “Full text of the safeguards agreement could not be shared with Left partners as it is a “privileged” confidential document between the Indian government and the IAEA.”

Mukherjee told that a brief summary of the agreement was already unveiled to the Left parties and full text of the safeguards agreement could be shared with “third parties” only after going through laid down procedures of the IAEA.

He also clarified that outcome of talks with IAEA had been circulated among all members of the UPA-Left co-ordination committee as agreed in the November 16, 2007 meeting.

Mukherjee told that those who want a full text of the safeguards agreement would have had to join the government to have access to it.

Tags: Congress, External Affairs minister, India, Indo US, Left, Left Parties, Nuclear deal, Nuke Deal, Pranab, Pranab Mukherjee, UPA, USA

The very crucial Indo-US deal conflicts are still unresolved. While opposing the deal, on Friday, top Left leaders threatened the government not to sign the safeguard agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency, otherwise they will pull out their hands for the government.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee discussed the issue with the Left party leaders after which Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat said, “We have asked the government not to precede further on the IAEA safeguards agreement.”

“I explained to him (Mukherjee) the Left parties’ stand adopted at our meeting,” the CPI-M leader added.

Earlier, a senior CPI-M leader made a clear statement that “if the government takes the next step, we will break with them.”

Karat expressed the hope that the government will last its full term and that “we are trying to make serious efforts (in this regard).”

Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar, whose party is a key constituent of the UPA, met Karat on Friday morning in an attempt to defuse the situation.

He later said the government should listen to what the Left parties are saying and address their “concerns” while deciding on the nuclear deal.

Tags: Atomic Energy, India, Nuclear deal, Nuke Deal, Prakash Karat, Pranab Mukherjee, US

The Indo-Pak joint anti-terror mechanism is expected to meet in New Delhi later this month to discuss collaboration in fighting the menace. It is expected to talk about cross-border linkages to various terror incidents, including Ajmer and Hyderabad that occurred in India. Evidence about the issue are supposed to be laid in the meeting from Indian side.

This will be the third meeting of the mechanism, set up in November 2006 in the aftermath of serial blasts on Mumbai trains. The dates for the meeting are not yet fixed. The meeting is likely to take place in the second half of the month.

The meeting is taking place in the aftermath of the Jaipur serial blasts that killed over 60 people. The incident is however unlikely to be figure in the talks as the investigators have not reached any firm conclusion as to who were behind the terror strike. Investigation in the case is still going on.

After his talks with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee last month, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi agreed that terrorism is a “common menace” for the two countries and they should work together to fight it. The meeting assumes significance considering the readiness of the new democratic dispensation in Pakistan to cooperate with India in fighting terrorism.

Tags: India, Indo Pak, Pak, Pakistan, Pranab Mukherjee

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

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has arrived in Washington to meet the US President George W Bush. His visit is organized to hold a talk on civil nuclear war. Bush and Mukherjee are expected to go over broadening and deepening of Indo-US ties which will include the civil nuclear initiative.

Mukherjee will meet Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice at 8:45 am(6:15 pm IST) and will meet the President and the National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley at White House in the afternoon.

A range of issues on bilateral, regional and global issues will be expected to be discussed in the meetings with the civilian nuclear initiative being at the top discussion topic.

Bush administration will came to know about the views of Indian Government on this issue. Top lawmakers from the US have made it known to India of the absolute timeliness left for the second session of the 110th Congress to pass the nuclear deal. Mukherjee will get important timeliness left to be resolved if the nuclear deal is to get through this session of US congress.

Mukherjee would leave for New York on Tuesday on his way to India.

Tags: India, Nuclear deal, Pranab Mukherjee, US