US President George W. Bush headed for India yesterday as talks on a landmark US-Indian nuclear pact were down to the wire and tens of thousands of Indians rallied in New Delhi to protest his visit.
The pact is touted as the cornerstone of an emerging strategic partnership between the two countries after nearly a half-century of Cold War estrangement. But negotiators have struggled to settle differences over how to separate India's tightly entwined civilian and military atomic programs.
"Our people are talking to the Indians, today on the plane," Bush said during a stop in Afghanistan. "We'll be doing so when we land in New Delhi."
He called the pact a "difficult issue" for both governments.
"Hopefully we can reach agreement, and if not we will continue to work on it until we do," he said.
The last-minute efforts to seal the nuclear pact coupled with yesterday's protests underscored India's mixed feelings toward Bush and the US -- a country many here see as a friend but also a global bully.
While Bush remains more popular in India than he is in many other countries, some here object to US policies, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. India, an overwhelmingly Hindu nation of more than 1 billion people, has the world's second-largest Muslim population.
Indian and US officials had hoped to seal the nuclear deal before Bush arrived, but disagreements over which of India's nuclear facilities would be put under international safeguards have delayed talks.
"We need a certain degree of clarity on our mutual commitments," Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran told reporters on Tuesday. "We need to make sure there are no ambiguities which may create difficulties for us in the future."
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice singled out one particularly contentious subject.
"The one thing that is absolutely necessary is that any agreement would assure that once India has decided to put a reactor under safeguard that it remain permanently under safeguard," she said.
Rice and US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley briefed reporters on Air Force One as Bush flew from Washington.
The pact would allow the US to provide nuclear technology and fuel desperately needed by India to feed its booming but energy-starved economy.
also see stories:
Thousands rally against Bush
India hangs on a nuclear breakthrough
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique