Govt top guns blunt criticism of IAEA draft

The team comprised Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) Director-General Anil Kakodkar and DAE Director RB Grover, India's chief negotiator for the draft agreement.

Hailing the IAEA draft agreement as a "standalone'' and the first "country-specific'' document in the history of the nuclear watchdog, Grover said, "The clause for ensuring uninterrupted fuel supply (from supplier countries) for civilian facilities is embedded in the draft.''

He explained that the "IAEA agreement would act as a deterrent to a fuel supplier country in case it chose to disrupt the supply." Under the agreement, he said, India had the option of reporting to the IAEA the breach of the supply pacts.

Narayanan said the criticism about the IAEA draft not conferring on India the status of a nuclear state was a "non-issue that is made out to be a big thing.''

"India is a nuclear weapons state. The whole world knows about it ,'' he said.

The draft is the first step towards operationalising the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement. India has also to seek clearance from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers' group (NSG) before its goes to expand its civil nuclear programme.

Although Menon expressed confidence that the 45-member NSG would give a waiver to India for nuclear trade in spite of New Delhi not being a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, concerns are being raised in Europe and some other NSG member countries about India's nuclear ambitions.

Kakodkar said the treaty (with the IAEA) insulates "India's defence and strategic installations'' and does not bar India from exporting nuclear material and components to other countries. He also reminded the world that India had put a moratorium on conducting nuclear tests.