New Delhi
7 October 2007
International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Dr Mohamed
ElBaradei’s visit to India can be expected to set the pace for the home stretch of the India-United
States nuclear deal. New Delhi hopes Dr ElBaradei’s talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
and Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Dr Anil Kakodkar next week will pave the way for
inclusion of perpetual fuel assurances in return for placing select Indian nuclear facilities,
including a new reprocessing plant, under safeguards in perpetuity.
New Delhi wants to speed up negotiations for an India-specific safeguards agreement with the
IAEA for Washington to be able to court the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which operates by
consensus. A meeting of the consultative group of the Nuclear Suppliers Group is likely to be
held in Vienna on November 14 and 15. The India-US nuclear deal is expected to be on the
agenda of that meeting.
New Delhi reasons that if the NSG agrees to a "clean, unconditional exemption" for India, then it
can formally approach the IAEA Board of Governors for approving the safeguards pact. The IAEA
Board of Governors will meet in Vienna on November 22 and 23. The George Bush
Administration of the US can then ensure that the nuclear deal is accomplished in the life of this
Congress. The US Congress is expected to reconvene in January next year.
India could choose to approach the IAEA Board of Governors before its scheduled meeting if the
text of safeguards agreement is ready. A special session is not ruled out. According to Rule 11
of the Provisional Rules of Procedure of the Board of Governors, "each member of the Board
should be prepared, at short notice, to attend meetings of the Board." Rules 11 (b) adds: "The
Board shall meet at the request of the chairman, of any member of the Board, or of the director
general".
Sources privy to the negotiations between India and the IAEA told this newspaper that the
discussion, informal or otherwise, on an India-specific safeguards agreement is privileged
information. "It is privileged information, whether a State has approached or started the process
of a safeguards agreement or Additional Protocol; unless of course the State itself announces
it," they said.
The sources added that any possible safeguards agreement with India will need to be based on
INFCIRC/66/Rev.2, which are item-specific agreements done with non-NPT States. According to
Article 6E of the IAEA Statute, in theory, simple majority of those present and voting (of the 35
members) will be enough to take a decision. In practice though, the Board has so far followed
the so-called "Vienna Spirit" in approving safeguard agreements, which encourages Board
members to reach consensus in taking decisions.
The Left parties have maintained that they cannot be expected to support the UPA Government if
New Delhi takes the next step of negotiating a safeguards agreement with the IAEA. The UPA,
however, is determined to press ahead with its plans for operationalising the nuclear deal.
Washington has in the meantime indicated it is backing off just so that New Delhi can "work its
way through the current political discussion in Delhi", as US Assistant Secretary of State for
South Asia and Central Asia Richard Boucher said in Washington. He also told reporters that
there is no timeline for operationalising the deal.
Justices VR Krishna Iyer and PB Sawant, former judges of the Supreme Court of India, and
Justice H Suresh, a former judge of the Bombay High Court, have said in a joint statement that it
is unfortunate that the Government of India is rushing through this deal even before the US has
approached the Congress to get its laws, including the Hyde Act, amended to assure life-time
uninterrupted fuel supplies, under all circumstances, for the nuclear reactors India intends to
import. "As it stands, the 123 Agreement of August 2007 does not in anyway provide binding fuel
supply assurances," they have said.
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