Indian Government To Talk With IAEA On Indo-US Nuclear Deal

While addressing media persons after the sixth meeting of the UPA-Left committee, in New Delhi, Indian External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee said that the members felt that impact of the provisions of the Hyde Act and 123 Agreement on the IAEA safeguards agreement should also be examined.

"The Government will proceed with the talks and the outcome will be presented to the committee for its consideration before it finalises its findings," a statement issued by a joint panel of communists and ruling coalition leaders said.

After further discussion it was decided that the impact of the provisions of the Hyde Act and the 123 Agreement on the IAEA safeguards agreement be examined... This will require talks with the IAEA Secretariat for working out the text of the India-specific safeguards agreement. The Government will proceed with the talks and the outcome will be presented to the committee for its consideration before it finalises its findings," Mukherjee said.

The outcome of the meeting, which lasted for nearly 90 minutes, was on the expected lines as the some Left parties had indicated earlier that they would allow the government to proceed with the IAEA talks provided it came back to the committee without signing or initialling any document.

A team of officials from India’s Atomic Energy Commission will leave shortly for Vienna for talks with IAEA officials.

However, leaders from four Left parties, including CPI(M), CPI, RSP and Forward Block, spoke at Friday’s meeting to reiterate their opposition to the operationalisation of the deal.

RSP leader T.J Chandrachudan said later that there were some differences in the Left on giving the government leeway for talks at the IAEA with his party and the Forward Bloc opposing the move at the meeting of Left parties held an hour before Friday’s UPA-Left meeting. However, these parties decided to go along with the views of CPI(M) and CPI in the committee meeting.

The forward movement for the goverment comes a week after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi had crucial talks with Left leaders Karat and CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan last week when the government sought the allies' clearance for approaching the IAEA on the condition that it would not initial any agreement.

The safeguards agreement is one of the requirements for operationalising the civil nuclear cooperation agreement with the US, which the Left parties are still strongly opposed to.

The civil nuclear agreement aims to reverse a three-decade ban on New Delhi's access to American nuclear fuel and equipment, but the communists say that it impinges on India's sovereignty and imposes Washington's influence on India's foreign affairs.

However, before the deal becomes operational, it required to negotiate the India-specific safeguards agreement with the IAEA some time in next month as the next step to operationalise the 123 agreement with the United States and than India have to approach the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) for changing the rules to allow nuclear trade with other nuclear powers. At the final stage, the 123 agreement has to be approved by the US Congress.