Govt plays down PM's US trip, delinks it from Obama's China visit

Ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to US — the first state visit that the Barack Obama administration is hosting since taking over in January — the government on Friday tried to play down any big expectations from the trip even as it hoped for progress on some important bilateral issues, including the civil nuclear cooperation agreement between the two countries.

While Manmohan Singh, in an interview to The Washington Post, said he would push for a liberalisation of the technology transfer regime to enable quick implementation of civil nuclear cooperation agreement, government sources said pending issues in the nuclear deal were unlikely to be completed during this visit.

A reprocessing agreement is one of the last impediments in the implementation of the nuclear deal. It is learnt that the two sides are already holding consultations to reach an agreement. "The implementation of the 123 agreement is an ongoing process. We are well within the timeline agreed by the two countries to complete the process. Our respective delegations are discussing the pending issues, including the agreement over reprocessing rights," Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said.

Singh's five-day visit starting on Sunday has generated a lot of interest especially since it comes immediately after Obama's trip to China. A reference to Indo-Pak relations in the joint statement issued during Obama's visit to China has added a new dimension to Manmohan Singh's trip.

Rao, however, said Singh's visit should not be juxtaposed with Obama's China trip. "President Obama's visit to China does not cast any shadow over Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to US. The visit stands on its own and is aimed at building an enduring partnership between our two countries," she said.

Officials said no major agreements were likely to be finalised during the visit though some memoranda of understanding would be signed, prominent among those being one on counter-terrorism and another on renewable energy. An MoU over IPRs in agriculture and another on a bilateral education initiative are also likely to be signed. The two countries are expected to come up with a joint statement on climate change