Administrative Arrangement on nuclear deal a victory for Narendra Modi: Expert

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama's move to use his executive power to withdraw the condition that the US authorities would be allowed to monitor use of nuclear material supplied to India is a "big victory" for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his team, according to an expert.

"The issue dealing with the Administrative Arrangements should be a welcome news in India. If true, it is certainly a big victory for the Modi team and was not fully expected. Such an agreement is precedent setting for the US," Vijay K Sazawal, a Washington-based nuclear policy expert, told the media.

"Such an arrangement will provide fodder to anti-nuclear zealots in the US who will claim a sell out by the Obama Administration on the same scale as the original 2005 bilateral nuclear agreement between the two countries," said Sazawal, who previously served on Civil Nuclear Trade Advisory Committee for two years in the Obama Administration.

However, the Administrative Arrangements are not voted by the US Congress, so that concern is not there, he said.

He has been involved in negotiations related to civilian nuclear deal and has participated in the US civilian and defense nuclear programs covering the entire nuclear fuel cycle, and an array of reactor designs that have included conventional and space based reactors, and black programs.

Currently senior advisor to Centrus, Sazawal welcomed the agreement related to resolve the contentious liability issue.

"On the nuclear liability it was obvious to the President, a former fellow Parliamentarian, that changing the law would not be an easy prospect. Since India was willing to bend backwards short of changing the law, the President encouraged his bureaucrats to show equal flexibility," he said.

"My sense is that India also offered, in addition to the insurance regime, a Sovereign Guarantee to plug any 'loose financial holes' that exist, can be conjured or may be exposed in the future, building confidence in the US legal team that it liability exposure in India will be well characterized and well contained," Sazawal said.

"Whether India will offer a similar deal to Russia and France remain to be seen but is likely," he said.