Taking its discussions with the IAEA forward to operationalise the Indo-US nuclear deal, the Indian negotiators team led by Atomic Energy Commission chief Anil Kakodkar will be visiting Vienna next week for the second round of talks with the nuclear watchdog.
The three-day visit by the negotiating team beginning December 10 will seek to work out a safeguards agreement draft that will reflect India’s concerns on uninterrupted fuel supply as well as strategic reserves. Government managers on Thursday, however, maintained that the meeting, at this stage, would only evaluate apprehensions voiced by each side and attempt to bridge differences. ?There is already a basic framework, so the critical area is not the primary draft but whether or not insertion of some clauses are possible that will reflect India’s concerns,? a top government source said.
The talks, he affirmed, would then lay the ground for a third round, that has been tentatively scheduled for the third week of December. ?It is at that stage when actual negotiations will take place and the negotiating team will get back with the draft agreement for final approval here,? he said.
As a consequence, the govenrment managers asserted that a December-end engagement with the Left leadership would be in the pipeline to apprise them and seek their approval for the contents of the India-specific safeguards. The Left has been insisting that such ?concrete assurances? from the IAEA and NSG must be procured by the government before any forward movement can take place vis-a-vis the agreement.
There is, however, some apprehension that the Left might not be willing to let the bill go ahead even if India’s concerns are adequately reflected in the draft agreement following negotiations with the IAEA. CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat on Wednesday underlined that there was no consensus on the deal in Parliament and that the majority were against it.