Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao will visit Washington next month to take forward U.S. President Barack Obama's assurance to help India secure full membership of the Nuclear Suppliers' Group and three other non-proliferation multilayered organisations. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during his visit last December had also held out a similar assurance.
“We intend taking it up with the U.S. We want to work with the U.S. for full membership of the NSG,” said official sources.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is also scheduled to arrive here a couple of months later to hold talks with her counterpart S.M. Krishna.
The sources termed Washington's removal of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) from the entities list earlier this week as important and felt these changes were in line with the commitment made by Mr. Obama.
On the civil nuclear front, India had signed the Convention on Supplementary Compensation which prescribes additional amounts through contributions by member-countries in case of a nuclear accident. However, the U.S. government and civil nuclear companies have been told that they would have to look for opportunities in India within the ambit of the Limited Nuclear Liability Act which is a “national obligation.”
Stapled visas
The sources also said India and China were making progress on the issuance of stapled visas by Beijing to domiciled residents of Jammu & Kashmir. “Our embassy in Beijing has been in touch with the consular department of the Foreign Ministry in China and they have said they are working on a solution. The Chinese say they are dealing with the problem and it should no longer be a problem,” they said. (Other sources however said China had stopped issuing stapled visas to Indians domiciled in J&K but would continue to follow its 12-year-old policy with regard to Arunachal Pradesh residents).
