Washington: After holding crucial talks on the civilian nuclear cooperation deal, Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran on Friday concluded his two-day visit to Washington.
"We have achieved considerable advance in terms of the implementation of the various understandings that were reached on July 18, and I believe that we have a very good foundation for taking our relations to a much higher level," Saran said.
The agreement signed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President George W Bush on July 18 this year, forms the foundation of the new Indo-US ties.
During the visit, Saran met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar.
But the focus of the visit was Saran's meeting with Undersecretary for Political Affairs, Nicholas Burns, where the two discusssed a working group that is trying to push forward a landmark agreement on civilian nuclear cooperation.
Expressing his optimism over the outcome of the visit, Saran said, "I'm going back very encouraged by the environment with regard to the implementation of this agreement."
The Indo-US relations are poised for a very significant advance in the coming months, he added.
However, with India not giving any clear-cut guarantees about full-scope safeguards on the military facilities, the US state department didn't appear to share Saran's optimism.
The statement read out by the US spokesman was factual and merely reiterated that the Bush administration would ask Congress to change US laws as soon as India presented a plan to separate its civilian and military nuclear programmes.
Meanwhile, experts say that the issue would involve several more discussions before a final verdict was reached.
This includes Burns' January visit, when he is to hold a meetings with the Joint Working Group on Civil Nuclear Energy Cooperation.
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