Nothing prevents India from signing up with other countries for nuclear trade and it would like to do it "as early as possible", External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said.
His remarks assume significance in the context of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urging India not not to "disadvantage" US by doing nuclear trade with other countries before the US Congress approves the Indo-US nuclear deal and Mukherjee saying something similar.
"No. What I said was different. I said that 123 Agreement is not not complete till it is ratified by US Congress.
"So we have to wait till the whole process is finalised before we can do nuclear trade with the US. Theoretically nothing prevents us from signing up with other countries," the minister told "India Today".
Asked if this meant India could do business with other countries like France and Russia, he said "of course, we can approach other countries to start business and we will like to do it as early as possible."
To a question whether he was appointed by China's approach in the Nuclear Suppliers Group meeting last week, Mukherjee said if China was not not part of the consensus there would not not have been a consensus in the NSG.
"It is as simple as that. Their actions before that and during the plenary is part of the normal decision making process," he said.