July 21, 2007 (LPAC)--On Thursday, Vice President Dick Cheney met with Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and National Security Advisor MK Narayanan in a bid to break their will in regard to the U.S.-Indian nuclear negotiations. Menon had already had an unscheduled meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday after failing to overcome disagreements in talks with Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, and both have also met with U.S. National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley. The talks are focused on implementing the agreement signed by President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manoham Singh in 2005, and both governments want to hammer out an agreement in time to submit it before the U.S. Congress enters the next election cycle. The Hindustan Times reports that the contentious issues on the table include a proposal by India to set up a fully safe-guarded facility for reprocessing U.S.-origin spent fuel, while Washington would neither permit reprocessing nor is willing to take back the fuel. India is insisting on its right to reprocess spent fuel and wants guarantees for a fuel supply for the 14 civil reactors it has agreed to put under international safeguards under the agreement.

What is left out of public accounts is that restricting India's right to reprocess fuel would also threaten India's best long-term potential for nuclear power - the thorium-fueled reactor, for which India is in the forefront of development, while enjoying a huge reserve of thorium within the country. As reported by Ramtanu Maitra in EIR on Jan. 5, 2007 ("Why Indian Scientists Oppose the US-India Nuclear Agreement"): "If India cannot reprocess the spent fuel to secure plutonium for the sake of converting thorium into fuel, the thorium reactors will never take off. Separation of plutonium is essential for the eventual use of thorium as a nuclear fuel. India therefore expects that reprocessing will be an important activity of its nuclear energy program. This is what has put the Indian atomic scientists on a warpath against the Singh government's willingness to accept the bill."

No outcome of the talks with Cheney is reported, but the Times of India says that because India has been burned by the U.S. on bilateral agreements before, Indian officials are said to be seeking a foolproof deal.