US wants NSG process to be over in August

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New Delhi, Jul 23: The US wants the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) process to be completed in August so that the US Congress can endorse the 123 agreement in September before Washington and New Delhi ink the bilateral civil nuclear cooperation agreement.

‘‘We would like the NSG meeting to take place in a week or 10 days after the IAEA Board’s after the approval of the India-specific safeguards agreement by the IAEA board at its meeting August 1,’’ US ambassador David Mulford told reporters here in a telephonic conversation from Cleveland.

The envoy, who is currently in the US holding consultations with the Bush administration on India, said the US, is expecting to get a ‘clean’ waiver from the NSG for India by the end of August. ‘‘This is a historic moment and countries are expected to take a political decision on which side of the history they are—whether they want to engage themselves with India or not,’’ Mulford said in response to a question.

According to him, the Bush administration, is working on the time-line, which would see the NSG clearing a waiver for India by the end of August so that the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement could be placed before the US Congress by September.