Divergence of views not to hamper Indo-US ties: Mukherjee

SEOUL: Strongly defending the Indo-US civil nuclear deal as a ‘landmark’ agreement, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Monday any ‘divergence of views’ would not hamper the fast-growing relations between the two countries, apparently referring to opposition by the government's Left allies.
    
Mukherjee, who is on a three-day visit, pitched for increased engagement with Beijing while making it clear that the increasing cooperation between India and the US was not aimed at containing China.
    
"I do not visualise any constraint in bilateral relations (between India and the US). It is expanding very fast," Mukherjee said while interacting with diplomats and intellectuals here after delivering a lecture on 'India's Look East Policy'.
    
He was asked whether he apprehended ‘constraints’ in growth of Indo-US relations because ‘[some people were apprehensive over rapprochement’ between India and the US.
    
The minister said India has had good relations with the US since the beginning but ‘now it has assumed new dimension, new angularities’.
    
Referring to the civil nuclear cooperation ‘we are trying to have’, he said "If it finally materializes, it will be a symbol of landmark agreement of bilateral cooperation in multilateral framework."
    
Elaborating, he said though the Indo-US nuclear agreement is a bilateral pact, ‘its implications will be involvement of large number of Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) countries and India-specific agreement with IAEA.’
    
"I feel in relationship to any individual country, there may be certain divergence of views in certain areas, in certain aspects (and) in particular context but it is not necessary that these will stand in the way of overall expansion of relationship with any country," Mukherjee said.
    
The comments assume significance as the government's Left allies are opposing growing engagement with the US. Besides expressing strong opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal, the Left parties have been criticising the government for pursuing defence ties and recently organised nationwide demonstrations to protest against Indo-US naval exercises.