2007 Speeches & Remarks

Statement by Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, at South Block before Meeting with Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, May 31, 2007

May 31, 2007

Good afternoon.   It is a great pleasure for me to be back in New Delhi here with Ambassador Mulford.  I have been asked, of course, to come here to review with the Indian leadership this excellent new global partnership that we have established on a number of issues across the board. 

We are very grateful for the friendship of the Indian government.  We think we have made over the last few years, and I think thanks to the work that Ambassador Mulford has done, an extraordinary amount of progress on this global agenda that we have created with India. 

I am looking forward to talks with a variety of senior officials here.  I am seeing Foreign Secretary Menon in just a moment to preview all of these issues regarding a multitude of initiatives we have underway. 

Of course I will be looking at the civil nuclear agreement.  We have made a lot of progress in that agreement.  It has been two years since I came here first to begin the negotiations with the Indian authorities.  We are nearly there, although as Ambassador Mulford said the other day, “Some work has to be done, some hard work has to be done.” And this agreement is very much in the interest of both of our governments. 

I think it represents the most ambitious proposal we have put forward in 30 years.  It allows us to correct a major problem in U.S.-Indian relations and it delivers India from its nuclear isolation.  So, there are lots of reasons to feel optimistic about this agreement once we have had it nailed down.  We will hope to make some progress over the next day or two in that regard.

Thank you very much.