N-deal: US Senators set July as deadline
No, it's not over: PM July 2008 is the very last deadline for the Indo-US nuclear deal to reach the US Congress, according to three US Senators, who met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today. This means that India will have to sew up the India-specific safeguards agreement with the 35-nation IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and obtain the approval of the 45-nation NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group) before presenting the nuclear deal to the US Congress - and all this will have to be done before July. Or else, the Bush administration will not be able to consider the deal, arguably the centerpiece in Indo-US strategic partnership. The Senators who met Manmohan Singh and national security adviser M.K. Narayanan were John Kerry, Joseph Biden (both Democrats) and Chuck Hagel (Republican). The Senators discussed the entire gamut of Indo-US relations with the Prime Minister, later addressed the media here. The senators were in New Delhi en route from Pakistan where they observed the recent national elections. Biden, who heads the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee, quoted the Prime Minister as saying that the deal was