Pelosi Meets PM, Backs Nuke Deal

NDTV
Mar 21, 2008

US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday discussed the progress of the India-US civil nuclear deal with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and assured him about the Democratic Party's broad support for the deal. Manmohan Singh at his residence hosted lunch for Pelosi and the accompanying bi-partisan delegation of US legislators, mostly Democrats. The entire gamut of India-US relations, including the nuclear deal, were discussed, official sources said. Pelosi stressed the need for India to conclude the next steps - safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and a change in NSG guidelines - so that the deal can be ratified by the US Congress well in time before it gets caught up in election-year legislations, the source said. Pelosi, the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives and a Democrat with strong views on nuclear non-proliferation, did not set any deadline for India to conclude the deal. However, she said it would help if India concludes the next steps by May-June so that the deal can be ratified by an up and down vote in the US Congress this July.