New Delhi
27 July 2007
Negotiating a separate agreement on arrangements and procedures
that will allow India to reprocess spent nuclear fuel has been added to the three steps
that India and the US needed to take for operationalising the proposed bilateral civilian
nuclear cooperation agreement.
US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns told a news conference in
Washington, which was televised deferred live at the American Center in New Delhi, that
the two countries needed to negotiate another agreement that pertains to the Section 131
of the United States Atomic Energy Act.
The new agreement will be in addition to the India-specific safeguards to be signed with
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), relaxation of the Nuclear Suppliers Group
(NSG) guidelines to allow strategic commerce with India, and the commending of the text
to the US Congress for a final vote.
"A series of [steps will need to be undertaken] over next several months," Burns said in
response to a question. He indicated that the IAEA safeguards agreement (Burns
preferred not to use the phrase "India-specific" safeguards throughout his presentation)
would need to be concluded by September or October.
Burns suggested that the US and India would turn to the NSG in November. In New Delhi,
Burns's counterpart, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, told reporters that it was
New Delhi's "expectation" that the NSG would give "unconditional exemption" to India
includingt fuel supply assurances.
Mr Menon said that it would be "premature" to talk about the position each NSG member
would take on the India-US nuclear agreement. "We have not asked the question of
individual countries. Without the 123 Agreement, we had not gone to them. Now we will
be briefing the NSG members," he explained.
Responding to a specific question on China's attitude in the NSG, Mr Menon said that
Minister of External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee is likely to meet with his Chinese
counterpart, Mr Yang Jiechi, on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Foirum (ARF)
meeting to be held in Manila next week.
"Certainly [that will be] topic of conversation," Mr Menon said when asked whether Mr
Mukherjee could be expected to hold bilateral discussions with many of the NSG
members, including China, that will participate in the ARF meeting. "We are trying to set
up [a meeting] with China [and to] inform our friends," he added.
Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Dr Anil Kakodkar, in turn, said that India has had a
number of discussions with the IAEA already. "We intend to carry the process forward
[and] try to negotiate an India-specific safeguards agreement further," he told reporters.
The Additional Protocol would be signed later.
In response to a question Dr Kakodkar said that it would be "unrealistic to put a
timeframe" for conclusion of the India-specifc IAEA safeguards agreement. "As soon as
possible," he said when pressed further. he reiterated that the agreement would ned to
be "different and specific to [Indian] conditions".
National Security Adviser MK Narayanan said that "[in] order to make cooperation in civil
nuclear energy a reality, India will now negotiate an India-specific safeguards agreement
with the IAEA. The India-US bilateral agreement also opens up the possibility of an
unconditional exemption for India from the [NSG]."
The Joint Statement on the completion of the negotiations read, "The next steps include
India negotiating a safeguards agreement with the IAEA and support for nuclear trade
with India from the forty-five member Nuclear Suppliers Group. Once these additional
actions have been completed, President Bush will submit the text of the agreement to
the US Congress for final approval."
// What lies ahead ... //
1. Reprocessing agreement under Section 131 of US Atomic Egerny Act
2. Safeguards agreement with IAEA
3. Amendment of NSG guidelines
4. Final vote by US Congress
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