Rice not to attend Singh-Bush meeting: State Department

Thu, Sep 25 07:25 PM

Sridhar Krishnaswami Washington, Sept 25 (PTI) US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will not take part in a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George W Bush here, but it did not reflect a "diminution" in her efforts to get the nuclear deal approved, a government spokesman has said. Maintaining that Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte will be representing the State Department at the talks between Singh and Bush at the White House scheduled for 0230 IST tomorrow, spokesman Sean McCormack stressed that Rice has been in constant communication with Congressional leaders on the US-India civilian nuclear agreement.

"She just took a look at her schedule. The fact that we have had intensive consultations with Indian officials over the past couple of weeks, nearly constant communication, I would say, about the civilian nuclear deal, that she felt as though it was for her best to stay up here," he told reporters in New York.

"Of course, Deputy Secretary Negroponte, who has been deeply involved in this issue as well, can represent the State Department at meetings at the White House," he replied when asked why the Secretary was not going to Washington. When asked does her staying back in New York represent in any way her confidence or lack of confidence, the spokesman said: "Oh, no.

Please -- no, please don't, in any way, interpret it as that. Like I said, this is an issue that she has really been quite seized with over the past month in a very intensive way.

"As a matter of fact, I know that she was making calls to Capitol Hill from New York today about this issue. So it should in no way be read as a diminution in her level of effort to try get this (the nuclear deal) passed," McCormack said, according to a transcript of the briefing released here.

PTI.

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