As India and US sit tomorrow to negotiate a bilateral civilian nuclear cooperation agreement, it is clear that the document will contain significant assurances on fuel supply which would allow India to stockpile fuel for the lifetime of every reactor.India will also be moving forward on negotiations over the safeguards agreement with an IAEA team expected to arrive here later this month. But all this is preparatory and the signing would happen only after the US Congress passes the enabling legislation.The unique fuel supply assurance was agreed upon during negotiations on the separation plan and has not been ever conceded to any country not recognised as a nuclear weapons state.In practical terms, there will be no restriction on how much fuel India can buy. India can import fuel beyond the immediate requirement of its reactors on the grounds that it will be part of a strategic reserve.This is part of a string of other assurances like US help in negotiating a India-specific fuel supply agreement with the IAEA and a back-up arrangement that in case all these assurances fail, US and India will convene a group of supplier friendly countries like Russia, UK and France to restore supply.This is in return for India agreeing to accept permanent safeguards on its civilian facilities unlike other nuclear weapon states.On the India-specific legislation pending with the Congress, it has been agreed that even the agreement will be put on vote.In discussions between principal interlocutors Shyam Saran and Nicholas Burns in London, Washington conveyed that it had come up with a compromise that Congress takes up the legislation and puts it on vote but will also get a chance to vote upon the bilateral agreement once it is negotiated.This puts to rest speculation over the Tom Lantos proposal—it has now been withdrawn—that the Congress will first pass a “sense of the Congress” resolution and vote on the Bill only after other conditions like the bilateral agreement and the safeguards agreement are negotiated.On the issue of the deal going off in case India were to test a device, the sense is very clear that Washington has this law in place internally but it won’t be part of the bilateral agreement.US is inclined to accept a wording that reaffirms India’s commitment to voluntary moratorium on testing. This is expected to be formalised in the talks starting tomorrow. Also, it was clarified in London that the Congressional waiver will be a one-time affair and not done annually as was being suggested in some quarters.There has been criticism that India placed far too many facilities like the Nuclear Fuel Complex are under safeguards apart from the 14 reactors. It’s, however, learnt that what has been undertaken is a firewalling within the NFC so that separate processing can be feasible for civilian and military facilities.Sources clarified that the entire NFC will not be under safeguards, just units that will be needed for processing fuel obtained from abroad have been separated from the rest which can be used for strategic purposes. This is a logical step in separating civilian and military fuel cycles.The separation plan tabled in Parliament lists nine research facilities as civilian. But these will be “safeguards irrelevant”, which means they will not be part of any safeguards arrangement—as was largely interpreted—but have been declared civilian so that they can enter into international cooperation.Besides this, India has nuanced its position on the Fissile Materials Cut-off Treaty by welcoming the US draft in the Conference of Disarmament in Geneva but has not given up its stand for a verification mechanism. US dropped this in its draft. This is in line with Indian commitment in the July 18 agreement while at the same time not divorced from its original position.
