Cabinet okays 123 agreement on Indo-US nuke deal

New Delhi, July 25: The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) and the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) today approved the 123 agreement on the India-US nuclear deal.

This was announced by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee after the meeting of the CCPA and CCS, presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The Government will now discuss the agreement with the Left parties tomorrow, and with Opposition parties before the beginning of the monsoon session of Parliament, Mr Mukherjee told reporters.

Besides Mr Mukherjee, others present at the meeting included Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Defence Minister A K Antony, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad.

The Prime Minister will also make a suo motu statement in Parliament on the 123 Agreement.

India will have to negotiate a safequards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and get an exemption from the Nuclear Suppliers' Group.

On the US side, the Agreement will need presidential approval. It can go to the US Congress for an 'up-down' vote.

The 123 Agreement, necessary to operationalise the India-US nuclear deal, was finalised by the two sides in Washington last week after months of hectic negotiations.

It is understood that Indian negotiators have been successful in negotiating reprocessing rights for India and assured fuel supply for the country's civilian nuclear reactors.

In the past couple of months, negotiations were stuck over granting reprocessing rights to India and on returning nuclear material to the US in case India decided to test a nuclear weapon.

On reprocessing, the US accepted India's offer of a safeguard facility for reprocessing of imported fuel.

UNI