Agencies
Kolkata, Feb 3:
In the wake of stiff Left opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal, the government on Sunday cautioned if the pact was derailed the country could face international "isolation". "If the agreement is not through, we could have to face isolation and possibly isolation in sanction too," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said inaugurating the 176th Annual General Meeting of the Calcutta Chamber of Commerce here. Mukherjee said India and the global atomic watchdog IAEA were yet to find a common ground on the draft safeguards agreement necessary to operationalise the civilian nuclear deal with the US and discussions were still on.
After finalising the draft pact, the Congress-led government would place it before the UPA-Left panel to get a political go ahead for the deal that aims to bring India out of nuclear wilderness, Mukherjee said. He said the agreements on civil nuclear cooperation with various countries would in particular "help in increasing the share of civil nuclear power in our energy mix" and ensure energy security.
"My ministry is aware of these challenges and are making all attempts by focusing on bilateral and multilateral engagements for cooperation with source countries," he said. Mukherjee said once problems on energy front were resolved, there would not be any problem achieving a sustainable growth at about ten per cent in the 11th Plan. Observing that the country faced unprecedented challenge in the form of ensuring its energy security, he said "we have to depend to a large extent on import of hydro carbon and other fossil fuels for meeting energy needs". Describing oil prices averaging at 100 US dollar a barrel as a drag on the country's resources that could have gone for more productive purposes, Mukherjee said, "Our energy needs will grow in keeping with our projected economic growth. The way out is by investing to build future assets in energy".
Draft safeguard accord not finalised
New Delhi, Feb 3: India and the global atomic watchdog IAEA
are yet to find a common ground on the draft safeguards agreement
necessary to operationalise the civilian nuclear deal with
the US. The two sides have held four rounds of talks in Vienna
to finalise the draft pact, which the Congress-led government
has to place before the UPA-Left panel to get a political
go ahead for the deal that aims to get India out of nuclear
wilderness. "We have held four rounds of talks but do not
have a draft yet," a source said. The fourth round of talks
were held between January 16 and January 20 in Vienna, where
the Indian delegation was led by Ravi Grover, Head, Strategic
Planning Group of the Department of Atomic Energy.
Meanwhile, the Atomic Energy Commission held a meeting here
under Chairman Anil Kakodkar. The Commission is understood
to have been briefed on the developments on the negotiations
for the safeguards agreement on the deal and other administrative
issues of the nuclear establishment. India and the IAEA have
failed to reach an "agreed text" in the last round with the
issue of India's right to hold its strategic reserve to cater
to lifetime supply for its civilian nuclear plants being a
sore point. Only when IAEA prepares a final agreed text which
has to be cleared by its Board of Governors, the US could
go ahead with its talks with the 45-member Nuclear Supplier's
Group to get a clean and unconditional exemption for India
to do nuclear commerce internationally.
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