By SRIDHAR KRISHNASWAMI
Washington, March 23: External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to meet US President George W. Bush on Monday as part of his maiden bilateral visit to the US during which the civil nuclear deal is expected to dominate the parleys.
Mr Mukherjee, who will be arriving here on Sunday afternoon from New York for the two-day visit, is scheduled to meet secretary of state Condoleezza Rice on Monday at 6.15 pm IST.
Ms Rice and Mr Mukherjee are expected to hold a wide-ranging discussion on several aspects of the broadening and deepening Indo-US ties which will include the civil nuclear initiative.
After the meeting at the state department, the minister is scheduled to talk at a closed-door session with senior analysts and think tank specialists at the Carnegie Endowment, an event which is closed to the media.
The high-point of Mr Mukherjee’s trip to Washington is his visit to the White House on Monday afternoon where he will be having a session with US national security adviser Stephen Hadley. Mr Mukherjee is also expected to meet Mr Bush there.
The Indian minister would leave for New York on Tuesday on his way to India.
Senior officials have been stressing that in Mr Mukherjee’s meetings, including at the White House, a range of issues on bilateral, regional and global issues will be discussed, but there is also the feeling that the civilian nuclear initiative will merit a high degree of importance. The feeling is that the Bush administration would want to know from Mr Mukherjee his thinking and that of the government of India on this critical issue given his important role on the nuclear initiative; and Mr Mukherjee will get to know first hand from the administration the important timelines left to be resolved if the nuclear deal is to get through this session of US Congress.
Top legislators from the US have made it known to India of the absolute timelines left for the second session of the 110th Congress to pass the nuclear deal.
Given the crowded Congressional agenda in an election year legislators have expressed the opinion that the deal will have to come to Capitol Hill by the end of May, if passage is to be possible by the end of July prior to Congress breaking away for the summer recess. (PTI)
