In discussing the fineprint of the July 18 Indo-US nuclear deal, both sides will have to grapple with a range of questions behind the complex processes involved to achieve simultaneous movement on two key aspects: Bush Administration bringing a legislation to the US Congress and India working on separating its civilian and nuclear reactors. Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns, who reaches here this evening, have their task cut out over the next couple of days as they initiate talks on implementing the commitments made on July 18. Burns’ speech at the Asia Society and reports that barring Sweden and Japan, there was not much opposition to the US proposal for special status to India at the Nuclear Suppliers Group meeting in Vienna lends a positive backdrop to the talks here. But moving forward on the two key aspects of the nuclear deal is a complex affair. To begin with, the Bush Administration needs to approach the US Congress to amend its laws as stated in the 1954 Atomic Energy Act (AEA) which were inserted as an amendment through the 1978 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act. These are: • Section 123 of AEA: This requires an agreement of cooperation as a prerequisite for significant nuclear cooperation with a recipient country that fulfills nine other criteria. Of this, the most critical is that India must have full scope safeguards just as any non-nuclear weapons state. This has to be amended because India is not giving up its nuclear weapons. A Presidential waiver can be given but that too needs Congressional approval. • Sections 127 & 128: These cover export licensing procedures. Even if the Congress were to approve an agreement of cooperation, US Nuclear Regulatory Commission will have to license the nuclear exports. Section 127 lays out similar conditions as Section 123 while section 128 re-emphasises the need for full-scope safeguards of reactors. A separate Presidential waiver will be needed for this, unless these are changed for India. • Section 129: The provision requires termination of nuclear exports to any country that has detonated a nuclear device since 1978 or is conducting such work without showing any signs of ending the activity. This too has to be amended. New Delhi will be keen to know how the Bush Administration plans to overcome these issues. This can be done through a one-time amendment or a new India-specific legislation. Burns is expected to throw light on this given his remarks that the Bush Administration plans to approach the US Congress before President George W Bush’s visit next year. On its part, the US has sent signals that India needs to move quickly on separation of its civilian and nuclear entities. India currently has 14 nuclear reactors and eight more are under construction. Of these, six are already safeguarded reactors. While separation will have to be done voluntarily, an important aspect here is the voluntary safeguards agreement India has to negotiate with the International Atomic Energy Agency. This will precede the negotiations on additional protocol where the list of civilian reactors will have to be provided. India will have to sign a safeguards agreement as a nuclear weapons state and that must contain the clause which allows such states to withdraw any reactor from the list for national security reasons. All the five nuclear powers have negotiated independent agreements but in India’s case, US support will be vital before it enters into such negotiations with IAEA. Washington, on the other hand, will try to get a sense of how India eventually plans to separate these entities. Saran and Burns will have to thrash out an understanding on these details which hold the key to taking forward the nuclear deal. Iran parliamentarians for stronger ties NEW DELHI: With the November 5 meeting of the IAEA board on Tehran’s N-issue looming, an Iranian Parliamentary delegation met the Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chetterjee and appealed for ‘‘greater interaction and cooperation’’ between the two countries. The Leader of the Iranian Parliamentary delegation, Dr Kazem Jalali, called on Chatterjee in Geneva during the 113th Assembly of Inter Parliamentary Union meeting (October 17-19). Jalil will be visiting New Delhi with an Iranian Parliamentary delegation on Chatterjee’s invitation. —ENS
