India can't miss out on nuclear development: PM

THE DEAL STAYS: The PM dedicated two new nuclear power reactors in Tarapur on Friday.

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Tarapur, Maharashtra: The Government and its Left Front partners have reached a truce on the Indo-US nuclear agreement but the Prime Minister has made it clear the country is not abandoning the deal.

"There is today talk the world over of a nuclear renaissance and we cannot afford to miss the bus or lag behind those global developments," Manmohan Singh said at an event to dedicate two new nuclear power reactors in Tarapur.

"India is now too important a country to remain outside the international mainstream in this critical area. We need to pave the way for India to benefit from nuclear commerce without restrictions," he said.

His comments came a day after the Government and the four main Left parties agreed to form a panel to study the controversial nuclear deal.

He said international cooperation would not become effective until the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) adapts its guidelines to enable nuclear commerce with India.

The NSG itself has made it clear that they will not do so till the India-specific safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is finalised.

"Once these steps are taken, India can commence civil nuclear cooperation with all the 45 members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. This will signal the end of our international isolation of the past few decades," Singh said.

"We have set a modest target of 20,000 MW of nuclear power generation by the year 2020. This can be doubled with the opening up of international cooperation."

India finalised the text of the civilian nuclear energy cooperation deal with Washington last month but has since faced opposition from the Left Front.

The civilian nuclear cooperation deal aims to lift a three-decade ban on sales of US nuclear fuel and reactors to India, imposed after it conducted a nuclear test in 1974 while staying out of non-proliferation agreements.

(With Reuters)