Condoleezza Rice to arrive in India; Pranab, Rice to sign 123 Agreement

Breaking News! The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will arrive in India today. Rice and External Affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee will sign the 123 Agreement, which was a contentious part of the Indo-US Nuclear Deal. In a veiled threat to India, Rice had warned India of serious consequence if its conducts nuclear test again. Rice had made that statement before the vote in the Senate.

External Affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee played down Condoleezza Rice's threat and said India always followed a policy of nuclear moratorium, but it reserves the right to conduct nuclear tests if the situation demands so. Opposition parties including BJP and Left have already criticized the government over the nuclear deal. They accused the UPA government of surrendering India's interest before the US. The Left has declared to observe October 4 as a "Black Day".