'Nuke deal will help India in reducing poverty'

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

      

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Mohammed ElBaradei: I think it would be good from both Indian and USA’s perspective to come, finalise and operationalise the deal as early as possible. But there’s no deadline. What I see there is a bipartisan support in Congress for the US-India deal. So even there is change of administration I will be surprised if there is lack of support for that deal because as I said it makes a lot of commonsense. It will help India to lift millions of people out of poverty. It will bring India to its right place at the negotiating table for nuclear arms control.

Vidya Shankar Aiyar: It’s interesting you should use the word common sense because the Prime Minister used the exact phrase while defending the nuclear deal. He suggested that reason and commonsense say we should go ahead with the deal. But more importantly, what you are saying is that Government of India can afford to wait for the next US administration to take this forward.

Mohammed ElBaradei: Clearly. There’s no absolute deadline to take it or leave it. But the earlier India is able to lift the restriction on its ability to trade freely and to get state-of-the-art technology, the earlier India becomes a full fledged member of non-proliferation regime in general, the better for the international community. So from my personal perspective, aside from the Indo-US deal, the earlier it happens, the better it is. As I have said that once the agreement is signed, it’s a win-win situation both for India and for the international community.

Vidya Shankar Aiyar: You’ve met the Foreign Minister and importantly, the Prime Minister of India. Did you suggest them that you believe that even if India misses out on this Bush Presidency, the next American president is likely to back the Indo-US deal in any way?

Mohammed ElBaradei: It’s not for me to tell them what they already know.

Vidya Shankar Aiyar: But did you suggest? Or did they ask you?

Mohammed ElBaradei: I told them my conviction even before 2007 when I said that India should be a partner and not an outsider on all nuclear issues. So I even expressed my views during the negotiation between India and US. I said I subscribe fully to Government’s view of being a full partner in the Nuclear Arms Control Association. We will be ready and happy to negotiate whenever India is ready.