Cabinet Committees Formally Approve Indo-US Nuke Agreement

New Delhi, July 25 (UNI) The Government today accorded formal approval to the draft of the Indo-US civilian nuclear cooperation agreement negotiated in Washington last week.

The approval came at an hour-long joint meeting here of the Cabinet Committees on Political Affairs and the Cabinet Committee on Security -- chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at his residence, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told mediapersons later.

Minister Mukherjee said India's concerns had been "adequately addressed" in the 123 agreement. Besides Minister Mukherjee, the meeting was attended, among others, by Defence Minister AK Antony, Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Railways Minister Lalu Prasad and Surface Transport Minister TR Baalu.

The Indian concerns -- during the tough negotiations in Washington led by National Security Adviser MK Narayanan -- related to the right to test nuclear weapons, guarantees of uninterrupted nuclear fuel supply and the right to reprocess the spent fuel.

Significantly, Subsection 123 a.(4) of the US legislation -- relevant here -- states "except in the case of those agreements for cooperation with nuclear-weapon states, a stipulation that the United States shall have the right to require the return of any nuclear materials and equipment transferred pursuant thereto and any special nuclear material produced through the use thereof if the cooperating party detonates a nuclear explosive device." However, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh -- in his statement to Parliament in August last -- had categorically stated that "the US has been intimated that reference to nuclear detonation in the India-US Bilateral Nuclear Cooperation Agreement as a condition for future cooperation is not acceptable to us." It, therefore, took 300 working hours for Indian and American negotiators to put together a 30-page document that constitutes the now so-called 123 Agreement which will bring into effect the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal.

The Nuke Deal ends more than three decades of nuclear isolation for New Delhi -- during which time sanctions forced it to develop its own indigenous nuclear industry but also prevented it from tapping into technological advances and exchanges with the rest of the world. With this agreement, India becomes the only country in the world which has not signed the NPT but can still conduct nuclear trade with the world while retaining its nuclear weapons programme.

Subsequent to today's formal approval accorded jointly by the CCPA and the CCS to the draft of the Indo-US civilian nuclear cooperation agreement, the Prime Minister will apprise his predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the respective Leaders of Opposition in the two Houses of Parliament -- LK Advani and Jaswant Singh -- on the salient features of the agreement and seek their cooperation during the coming Monsoon Session for the agreement's approval.

As part of his consultations, the Prime Minister will meet CPI(M) leaders tomorrow, Minister Mukherjee said.

The Government will make a statement on the agreement on the first working day of Parliament which is expected to commence its Monsoon session on August 10.

UNI