No 'novel or unique' provision for US in nuclear understanding

The text of the Administrative Arrangement (AA) under the Indo-US nuclear deal contains no "novel or unique" provisions and is totally consistent with IAEA safeguards, government said today.
Noting that sharing of information under an AA was a normal practice, Spokesperson of the External Affairs Ministry Syed Akbaruddin said similarly, annual consultations were also a normal practice under an AA.
"Sharing of information under an AA on the implementation of a bilateral civil nuclear cooperation agreement is a normal practice. This is not novel or unique to the draft AA finalised with the US.
"Similarly, annual consultations are also a normal practice under an AA."

However, depending on the requirements of each country, the information is shared, officials said and cited the example of Canada with which India shares information of particular nature.
"At the same time, there are Indo-US specificities flowing from our bilateral 123 Agreement, which the draft AA addresses. These include, for example, the obligation under Article 7 of the 123 Agreement to provide information on facilities that store certain types of material," the Spokesperson said.
He also emphasised that "The text of the draft AA is totally consistent with India's practice of IAEA safeguards in accordance with the India Specific Safeguards Agreement as well as with our bilateral agreements with the US, including both the 123 Agreement and the Arrangements and Procedures on reprocessing. There will be no bilateral safeguards.