Font Size 
India to begin N-talks with IAEA in Vienna
Published on Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 13:52, Updated at Mon, Feb 25, 2008 in Nation section
Tags: Indo-US Nuclear Deal, India , New Delhi
WORTHY TALKS: IEAE had held talks earlier to work out a new template on safeguards specifically for India.
Other stories in the section:
Fallout of divorce: LS Speaker's future in question
Chatterjee, a CPM Lok Sabha member became Speaker as a nominee of the Left.
New Delhi: The crucial talks over nuclear deal will take place in Vienna on Monday.
India will begin talks with global nuclear watchdog IAEA for negotiating the safeguards agreement, a pre-requisite for the Indo-US nuclear deal.
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 the Board officially takes it up.
But it is not known whether the issue will be taken up during the Board meeting beginning March 3, 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 that 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 nulcear 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.
More Headlines from Nation
| Related links: | |
Total Comments: 1
Read Comment | Post Comment
Weak govt. mindless decisions taking friendship with USA, why thier officials are bullying india, why central govt. not conducting elections
Read Comment