Headline Sketches

US-India Nuclear Deal passes in the US Senate (85-12). Was surprised to see how effective the nuclear lobby can be to haul the senators in the lame duck session and pass the deal in approximately 12 hours. Excellent floor work by Sen.Lugar. Some suspect there are some secret clauses in the deal. As long as they remain secret, the deal will go thru.

Prachanda-Bhattarai visit their friends in India. As expected some dissembling on renouncing the path of violence. Innovative but historically reminiscent diplomatic work with their "friends" here. Pranab gently pressurized by "friends" to meet them, rebuffs it. Shows some class!

Blair calls for talks with Syria and Iran to improve conditions in Iraq. US mentally preparing to do the same with potentially some talks already on in the background. Would be very interesting to see how this can be done in parallel with the acrimonious nuclear issue. Serious difficulties exist for both sides as their publicly staked out positions vary greatly from their actual bottomlines which are flexible.

North Korea returns to the 6 party talks (circus). Ever been in a meeting where 6 guys have to talk? As the talks get serious, they are bound to become bilateral in nature with the other 4 remaining mute spectators literally. If that would massage US Administration's ego, so be it. Bush warned North Korea that any effort to cross-proliferate would invite serious consequences. Does this mean US is willing to live with a "minimally" nuclear armed N.Korea ? May be. Many astute US officials have already pointed out the real threat from N.Korea is not an attack on US or US allies but proliferation to others. Where as Iran the perceived threat level is almost equally an attack on Israel and proliferation to Hizbullah types.

Blair makes an under-reported visit to Pakistan. Did he come to thank Musharraf for the thwarted Bojinka v2.0? Or was he there to prod to get any help on something cooking already? Must remember that Geoff Hoon visited Islamabad last December.

Hu Jintao visits India. It has been 5 years almost since both India and China decided to solve the boundary dispute from the "political perspective of overall bilateral relations". Since then every summit has been an occasion for re-stating that priniciple. Bottom line? No progress! But the Chinese Ambassador's recidivism on Arunachal Pradesh banking on technicalities ( 17th century Tibetan' maps) tells us that may be there is some backward movement. But the discussion on civilian nuclear co-operation was an unexpected positive. But in the face of the fact that Norway has already been recruited to do the shadow boxing for China in the NSG, I am inclined to think it may be a gambit to let Chinese entities in Telecom and Ports as a quid pro quo.

Things get from bad to worse in Srilanka. The power of SL Airforce is being used to effect some substantial battle gains. This was planned long back, 4 years ago but LTTE devastated the plan by blowing up the planes when they were parked in Colombo Airport. Would be interesting to observe how "the guardians of racial honour" in Tamil Nadu handle this.