Menon to meet US officials on Monday

New Delhi, Mar 7 (PTI) India and the US are expected to
discuss progress on probe into Mumbai attacks, particularly in
context of actions taken by Pakistan, when Foreign Secretary
Shivshankar Menon meets officials in Washington on Monday.

Menon, who is in the US, will meet his counterpart Under
Secretary of State William Burns and discuss the problem of
terrorism, aspects related to the civil nuclear deal and
issues related to the upcoming G-20 meeting, sources said
here.

The issue of threat posed by terrorism emanating from
Pakistan is expected to figure prominently in the discussions,
they said.

In this context, the two sides are expected to discuss
the progress made in investigations into the Mumbai attacks.

Actions taken by Pakistan in this regard will be
deliberated upon and Menon is expected to apprise Burns about
India's assessment of the steps taken by Islamabad.

Pakistan has arrested some Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) leaders
and some others but India is maintaining that it wants to see
the steps to be taken to logical end by bringing them to
justice in sincere and transparent manner.

Underlining that Pakistan must dismantle the terror
infrastructure existing on its soil, New Delhi contends that
Islamabad has not taken adequate steps in this regard.

In the backdrop of the attack on Sri Lankan players in
Lahore this week, Menon is also expected to highlight the
threat the world faces from terrorism based in Pakistan.

India feels that Pakistan lacks will or capability to
stamp out terrorism and that the international community needs
to do something about it urgently.

Menon is also expected to discuss with Burns the issue of
reprocessing of spent fuel in India, for which the two sides
need to negotiate arrangements.

Under the 123 agreement, the two countries have to
initiate within six months discussions on putting in place the
procedures for reprocessing and conclude these within a year
after that.

Accordingly, the discussions have to be started by
August this year.

The civil nuclear deal gives India an upfront right to
reprocess spent fuel. However, for this, India has to set up a
dedicated facility that will be under IAEA safeguards.

Issues related to the upcoming meeting of G-20 in London
next month are also likely to figure in the talks between
Menon and Burns. PTI AKK
DEP
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