The United States reiterated that it was “very committed” to the Indo-US nuclear deal and that it was “still working on it” even though the deal has been stalled due to domestic opposition. The above statement from the White House press secretary, Dana Perino came a day after leading Congress leader, Abhishek Singhvi spoke at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. Mr. Singhvi on his part asserted that the UPA government had not given up on the deal nor had it accepted it as the end of the road. He however noted that the government would like to carry all its constituents along1.

In other developments, Anil Kakodkar, Secretary of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) clarified that the India-specific safeguards agreement that has been negotiated with the IAEA was not final. This was in response to the statement made by the EAM Pranab Mukherjee who during his visit to Washington had stated that the agreement had been finalised2.

• 1. Pallava Bagla, “IAEA agreement not final: Kakodkar,” NDTV, April 18, 2008 at http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080047179&ch=4...
• 2. “Iranian official's meeting with IAEA head postponed,” Reuters, April 13, 2008, at http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL1362052020080413?rpc=401&f...