New Delhi: US Ambassador to India David Mulford made it clear that the US government cannot be sure about 'when' the US Congress will put its seal of approval on the Indo-US nuclear deal.
The statement assumes significance because the elections for the US Congress are slated for November, and the Republicans could end up losing majority in both the houses.
Mulford was speaking exclusively to Karan Thapar of CNN-IBN.
Mulford said, "With the Congress being a completely independent branch of our government, one has to acknowledge the prerogative of Congress to address this deal in the fashion that it sees fit".
"The administration works with the Cong", Mulford added "the administration is pushing ahead as quickly as it can, but we do have to work with Congress and their timetable will be to some extent be the key factor in determining the timing of the deal".
"So at this point of time on 1st of June, we cannot with any certainty say when the deal will pass - it could be in the next month or 6 weeks, it may not be till October, it may not be in 2006?" asked Karan Thapar.
"Well that’s right, but prospects for an earlier action are better than what you are characterizing," replied Mulford.
Comments
0 comment