'We need to finish the nuclear agreement... I don't think we have finished it'

Source: Rediff

July 18 marks a decade since the landmark India-US civilian nuclear deal was struck.

Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com reports on how Nicholas Burns, Washington's point person in the long negotiation on the nuclear agreement, believes that deal broke the seemingly insurmountable barrier in India-US relations.

Nicholas 'Nick' Burns, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 2005 to 2008, during which period he was Washington's point person in the negotiations on the US-India Civil Nuclear Agreement, is obviously frustrated that 10 years after the deal was mooted, it is still to be implemented.

In an interaction that followed after he led a discussion, Looking Backward, Looking Forward at the Carnegie conference, with Shyam Saran, his Indian counterpart in the early years of the negotiations, Burns made no bones about his disappointment.

"We need to finish the nuclear agreement, because as one of its negotiators with Ambassador Saran, I don't think we have finished it," Burns said.

India's nuclear liability law was a huge problem, Burns felt, and "we are just beginning to overcome the very lamentable legacy of the Indian nuclear liability law."

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Read more: http://www.rediff.com/news/report/we-need-to-finish-the-nuclear-agreement/20150717.htm