|
Sarkaritel.com News and
Features
N-deal: India begins talks with IAEA in Vienna
New Delhi, February 25, 2008
India will begin another round of talks with the global
nuclear watchdog IAEA in Vienna from Monday for negotiating
the safeguards agreement, a pre-requisite for the Indo-US
nuclear deal.
Indian delegation led by R B Grover, a top official in the
Department of Atomic Energy, reached Vienna on Sunday for the
talks which are expected to go on till the month-end.
Sources said Indian negotiators and IAEA team are also keeping
the agency's Board of Governors updated on the progress of the
consultations so that it would be easier when it is officially
taken up by the Board.
But it is not known whether the issue will be taken up during
the Board meeting beginning 3rd March, they added.
India and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had held
four rounds of talks in Vienna since November last apart from
several informal consultations to work out a new template on
safeguards specifically for India.
Pressing India to speed up implementation of the nuclear
agreement, the US had recently said the negotiations with IAEA
and Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) should be wound up by May
failing which New Delhi will not get a similar deal.
Unfazed by the US position India said it was a complex issue
and the negotiations would take some time to conclude.
"We have to get this done at the earliest but it has to be
correctly done and it has to meet all the requirements and so
it's a long technical process. There are several steps
involved. We have to move step by step," Atomic Energy
Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar had said.
If the `agreed text' on India specific safeguards is not ready
by this week, India may have to wait for the next Board
meeting scheduled in June which means it would miss the May
deadline set by the US.
According to M R Srinivasan, member of AEC, the India-
specific agreement is special. Once the draft is ready, it
would come to the Commission for examination and then go to
the UPA-Left political committee for approval.
New Delhi is working on a new template which would be more of
facility-specific safeguards and take into consideration
Indian interest on uninterrupted fuel supply and stockpiling
of fuel as outlined in the bilateral 123 Agreement from which
the deal springs.
According to sources in IAEA, the Board of Governors was
planning to insist on a five-week review of the final
safeguards agreement before deciding on its approval.
If the two negotiating parties do not come to any conclusion,
then the Board may take up the matter during its routine
meeting in June, the sources added.
After the agreed text is ready, the next step was to get
waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) to allow India
to participate in global nuclear commerce. India has sought
`clean and unconditional' waiver from the 45-member group that
controls the global nuclear trade.
The next NSG plenary meeting is scheduled for May, but the
group could meet in a special session to consider the Indian
exemption issue before that, the sources said.
NSG had considered the draft US-India agreement (123
agreement) for civil nuclear cooperation, which was presented
to the group by the US in September last and January 2008.
Once the IAEA agreed text and the draft on waiver for India by
NSG are ready, they have to be approved by the US Congress.
Earlier this week, three influential US Senators - Joseph
Biden, John Kerry and Chuck Hagel after a meeting with Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh said the negotiations with IAEA and
NSG should conclude by May failing which New Delhi will not
get a "similar" deal when next govenment is formed in
Washington.
The lawmakers told Singh that if the deal, which faces stiff
oppostition from his government's Left allies, is not taken up
the US Congress by June and the process completed during the
tenure of President George W Bush, any new US administration
will "renegotiate" the agreement.
Biden had said India will have to firm up the safeguards
agreement and seek waiver from the NSG before June to enable
the US Congress to vote on it.
E-Mail :
newseditor@sarkaritel.com |
