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
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
NORTHERN STRIKE: Taiwanese military personnel have been training ‘in strategic and tactical battle operations’ in Michigan, a former US diplomat said More than 500 Taiwanese troops participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise held at Lake Michigan by the US, a Pentagon-run news outlet reported yesterday. The Michigan National Guard-sponsored drill involved 7,500 military personnel from 36 nations and territories around the world, the Stars and Stripes said. This year’s edition of Northern Strike, which concluded on Sunday, simulated a war in the Indo-Pacific region in a departure from its traditional European focus, it said. The change indicated a greater shift in the US armed forces’ attention to a potential conflict in Asia, it added. Citing a briefing by a Michigan National Guard senior
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant
ENHANCED SECURITY: A Japanese report said that the MOU is about the sharing of information on foreign nationals entering Japan from Taiwan in the event of an emergency The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday confirmed that Taiwan and Japan had signed an agreement to promote information exchanges and cooperation on border management, although it did not disclose more details on the pact. Ministry spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei (蕭光偉) said the ministry is happy to see that the two nations continue to enhance cooperation on immigration control, in particular because Taiwan and Japan “share a deep friendship and frequent people-to-people exchanges.” “Last year, more than 7.32 million visits were made between the two countries, making it even more crucial for both sides to work closer on immigration and border control,” he said. Hsiao