Indo-US nuclear deal had almost collapsed: Rice

Washington: The Indo-US nuclear deal had virtually collapsed as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told President George W Bush it was not not going to work and the entire administration had given up on it.

“I called the President (Bush). ‘It isn’t going to work. Singh just can’t make it happen,’ I said. ‘Too bad,’ he answered and didn’t press further. Later that night Nick (Nicholas Burns, the then Under Secretary of State) called to tell me what I already knew – there wouldn’t be a deal,” writes the then Secretary of State in her forthcoming book No Higher Honor.

Rice describes in detail the riveting hours before the joint statement made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Bush on 18 July 2005 on the framework for the agreement that almost brought UPA I government to the brink in July 2008. “The Foreign Minister tried, but the Prime Minister just can’t sign on to the agreement,” Burns is quoted as telling Rice after Natwar Singh made a final pitch for the agreement with the Prime Minister.

As Rice woke up early in morning of the Bush-Singh meeting, she was a bit tense but determined not to let this happen. She made a final effort to personally meet the Prime Minister and pitch for the deal.