IAEA safeguards must for N-deal: US

VIENNA: The US on Sunday said it was ‘important’ for India to negotiate a safeguards agreement with the IAEA to operationalise the nuclear deal even as atomic energy commission chief Anil Kakodkar remained tight-lipped on whether he would hold talks with the UN nuclear watchdog.

“I will not speak anything on it now,” said Mr Kakodkar, who arrived here on Sunday to attend the annual meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency. He was asked whether he would hold talks with IAEA on the country-specific safeguards agreement or had received any directive from the government on proceeding with the discussions.

Finalising a India-specific safeguards agreement is one of the key steps for operationalising the deal that has been mired in political controversy with the Left parties threatening to withdraw support to the government if it goes ahead with the negotiations with IAEA.

Nudging India to fulfil its obligations under the nuclear cooperation agreement, US energy secretary Samuel Bodman said here: “It is important that both India and the US complete these processes by working with International Atomic Energy Agency and Nuclear Suppliers’ Group.” He was answering a query whether India can become a party to global nuclear energy partnership when it develops a dedicated facility for reprocessing under the deal.

Asked whether the proposed facility has been pledged for Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), Mr Bodman said, “we are looking forward to working with India.

“India has lot of contribution in the development of technologies required under the GNEP and if they desire to join, we appreciate and will be successful in accommodating India,” he told reporters.

Sixteen countries signed the statement of principles of GNEP following a second ministerial meeting chaired by Mr Boldman. India did not participate in the GNEP meet in which 38 countries were represented.

When asked whether India will become part of GNEP, Mr Kakodkar, said “first we have to complete the bilateral process on civilian nuclear cooperation”. On whether the dedicated facility for reprocessing fuel will be used by other countries, Mr Kakodkar said “it will be a purely national facility under IAEA safeguards for the imported fuel”.

International experts reaching here for the 51st general conference of the IAEA are understood to be keen to know about the opportunities likely to emerge if the Indo-US civil nuclear deal goes through.

The second ministerial meeting of the GNEP took place here and 11 countries joined the United States and four other key nuclear fuel nations in an effort to promote nuclear power as an energy solution.

In Delhi, government sources said issues related to the deal could be raised during discussions and technical sessions at the general conference or the scientific forum. Mr Kakodkar had till Thursday maintained that he had not received any directive from the Centre on holding discussions on the country-specific safeguards agreement.