Manmohan Singh’s Visit Very Significant: Hillary Clinton

Washington, Oct 21 – Describing the landmark India-US civil nuclear deal as part of a broader strategic dialogue with New Delhi, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has hailed the upcoming visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as ‘very significant’.

‘The nuclear accord that I supported as a Senator, and the Obama administration supports it as a government, is embedded in a broader strategic dialogue with Indians,’ she said in an address on non-proliferation issues at the US Institute of Peace Wednesday.

‘We view the relationship as comprehensive and very deep in terms of the issues we wish to explore with our Indian counterparts,’ Clinton said underlining that it is ‘very significant’ that the first official visit to Washington under the Obama administration will be by Manmohan Singh.

The Indian Prime Minister arrives here Nov 24.

India-US nuclear deal was unique and ‘we are not going to use it as a template in specifics,’ for other countries, Clinton said. But the administration is looking at closely how its broad outlines could be used to offer peaceful nuclear energy to other countries with having safeguards and verification.

‘The goal here is to ensure that the fuel cycle that does not spin into non-peaceful purposes,’ she added.

Pakistan has been citing the India-US deal to seek a similar deal, while Iran has pointed at it as to assert its right to pursue its nuclear programme.

But India, Clinton indicated, was a different case.

‘Obviously, we have lot of confidence with the Indians and their approach and we are going to be working closely with them, including American companies that will be part of implementing the reactor sites that are part of agreement,’ she said.

Clinton also said Washington wanted India to be part of the over-all effort, endorsing the strategy of the Bush administration, which wanted New Delhi to be in the nuclear tent rather than outside it, an approach which led to the nuclear deal.

‘We want them to really be a major player at the table…in trying to reinstate a non-proliferation regime that can prevent further countries acquiring nuclear weapons or even peaceful nuclear capacity with safeguards,’ Clinton said.

‘India we see as a full partner in this effort … we look forward to working with them in coming up with a 21st century version of NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty).’

Posted by Vamban on Oct 21, 2009 @ 11:58 PM Filed under America, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry