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A FAIR DEAL: ElBaradei says the nuclear agreement with India is fair and reasonable.

      

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Vidya Shankar Aiyar: No doubt. The nuclear mix is important.

Mohammed ElBaradei: It is.

Vidya Shankar Aiyar: However, looking at it, the route seems to be through Indo-US nuclear deal and the problem here seems to be the political dilemma that the Government faces in convincing the Left that entering into a safeguards agreement with your organisation is not really operationalising the deal. Do you agree that talks with IAEA will amount to actually putting the deal into operation?

Mohammed ElBaradei: I don’t think it’s operationalising the deal, and here I speak as a lawyer. Talking to IAEA is just a start. To operationalise the deal means you have to talk to us and it has to be agreed upon by our Board of Governors, you have to sign the agreement and ratify it. There are at least four stages before you can say that you are going to operationalise the deal.

Once you have the safeguards agreement you also have to get an exemption from the Group of Suppliers (45 countries). That’s one of the points I wanted to mention that when people talk about Indo-US deal, this is the way to lifting the restrictions by the 45 countries and India trading freely in the nuclear market.

Vidya Shankar Aiyar: Let’s talk about the safeguards agreement now. You’ve said it’s a non-issue, you have said there are many agreements that India already has in existence with your organisation. You’ve mentioned at least four agreements for the four reactors that India has. However, it is vital, isn’t it, for India to be talking to the officials at IAEA at least at an informal level? After all the safeguards need to be tailored according to India-specific requirements, isn’t it?

Mohammed ElBaradei: Yes.

Vidya Shankar Aiyar: So are these informal talks going on with the members of your organisation?

Mohammed ElBaradei: We have been talking to Indian officials for over a year since the deal came into place. But informal discussions have been going on all issues, not just that. We have a lot of relations between India and the agency. You’ll have to wait for the negotiations to start on the safeguards agreements when Indians come with a formal request. I am waiting for that and will be happy if India decides to do that.

Vidya Shankar Aiyar: When you say a formal request, you are talking about actually introducing an agreed text into the IAEA Board of Governors meeting that can be signed an cleared, is it?