India hands over draft plan to United States

London, May 26: India and the US have exchanged the drafts of the agreements that will enable the two countries to implement the bilateral civilian nuclear energy deal, Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran said.

Addressing a press conference at India House yesterday after meeting his Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, Mr Saran said he had handed over the counterdraft to the American official.

''The US legislative change is underway. Mr Burns gave me an account of where it stands. The outlook is positive and encouraging.

While the US administration is working towards the change in legislation, India is trying to finalise the bilateral Indo-US nuclear cooperation deal that will help towards the legislation.

We have studied the draft given by the US and have presented our own draft,'' he said.

During their meeting, Mr Saran said that Mr Burns had intimated him of the extensive interactions of the members of the administration with Congressmen and the number of interactions he has personally had.

''He said that a personal effort is being made by President George Bush and Secretary of State Condolezza Rice,'' he added.

Although the Foreign Secretary declined to give a definite timeframe for the final agreement, he quipped the ''sooner it came, the better.'' Mr Saran stressed that the IAEA needs to have ''India-sensitive'' safeguards. ''We now have an intial idea of measures of these safeguards,'' he said, adding there would be ''further discussions'' during a meeting with the IAEA technical team.

Regarding the state of play with the Nuclear Suppliers Group, he said India expected ''exceptions'' to the country and the US was working in this regard.

Significantly, the talks between Mr Saran and Mr Burns came just before the NSG's meeting in Rio de Janeiro on May 29 to discuss the exemptions for India.

During the meeting Mr Saran also spoke of India's comprehensive legislation on WMDs, sensitive technology and equipment. He said India's nuclear programme did not have a dedicated military peogramme. ''We had to undertakea separation plan between military and civilian nuclear programme. This seperation is important so that there is no diversion from civilian to military side,'' he noted.

''India will accept safeguards, but, since, we have a nuclear programme, the safeguards should be India-specific,'' he added.

The Foreign Secretary said the two had also discussed Iran, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

''On Iran, we maintained that confontration should be avoided.

On Nepal, both agreed that the new governmnet requires the support of the international community. On Sri Lanka, the 'proscription' of LTTE by the EU and Canda was taken note of, and we agreed that the escalation towards armed conflict should be prevented,'' Mr Saran said.

During his meeting with his British counterpart Sir Michael Jay, the Foreign Secretary said the focus of the discussions was on the forthcoming G8 meeting in St Petersbourg.

''Sir Michael shared the state of preparation for the summit. The main issues will be energy security, education and health. We discussed the kinds of papers being prepared for the summit and I told him that India is working on India-related papers on the subjects,'' he said, adding that the British diplomat had said the outreach countries will also be consulting each other.

The outreach countries are meeting in Moscow on June 1.

Regarding discussions on energy security at the G8, Mr Saran said it was ''not for us to say what the G8 countries will come out with.

However, the impression is that effort is being made about the balance of supplying nations and consuming countries.'' The outreach countries were looking for affordability in cost of energy and alternative sources of energy, particularly in hydro-fuel economy, he said, adding that they hoped there would not be ''any additional burden to developing countries.''

UNI

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