Ahead of their participation at the next week’s ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) meetings in Manila, India and the US issued a joint statement on Friday, announcing their intentions to mount an intensified diplomatic effort to expedite India-specific exemptions to the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group guidelines.

The joint statement was issued by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Both of them are expected to head their respective delegations for the ARF meetings.

The statement assumed immediate significance as key members of the 45-member NSG will also be represented at the Foreign Minister-level in the ARF. These members include China, Japan, Canada, Australia, Russia, South Korea and the European Union that represents such important countries as France, Britain and Germany.

As per the next steps marked before the Bush Administration goes to the US Congress for the approval for the draft agreement, Washington is required to secure an India-specific relaxation of the existing NSG guidelines that bar the NSG members from doing nuclear business with countries like India which have not signed the NPT.

Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon told newsmen on Friday evening that Mr Mukherjee has requested a meeting with his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the Manila meeting to discuss, among others, the NSG issue.

China is among the countries that have, in the past, entertained reservations about the Indo-US deal. Mr Mukherjee is also expected to take up the matter with his counterparts from other countries and Ms Rice too is expected to undertake the same exercise in Manila.

While announcing the finalisation of the draft agreement, better known as “123 agreement”, the joint statement said the initiative would “offer enormous strategic and economic benefits to both the countries, including enhanced energy security, a more environmentally-friendly energy source, great economic opportunities, and more robust nonproliferation efforts”.