Talks with IAEA: Delegation to leave for Vienna

In a bid to keep to the US elections calendar as well as press for a nuclear specific safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency that meets India's concerns, a delegation will leave for Vienna tomorrow for the third round of crucial talks. Government sources say this could be the final meeting to hammer out the terms of the agreement.

Talks at the IAEA headquarters will centre on the agreed text for India-specific safeguards, a prerequisite for the operationalisation of the deal, first mooted in July 2005, according to the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) sources in Mumbai

In Delhi, top government sources said India had to have the freedom to decide which facility should come under safeguards. This and the supply of nuclear fuel in perpetuity are the two important issues for discussion. India wants the agreement with the IAEA to ensure fuel supply is never snapped, no matter what the provocation.

The IAEA is driving a hard bargain, tasked as it is with ensuring countries that get nuclear fuel for civilian purposes do not divert it for military enterprises.

As sources say this round of talks, coming after a round each in November and December, could possibly be the final one, the opposite is also true: that if the matter is not clinched in this round, the nuclear deal, already in trouble for political reasons, could be in a jeopardy for technical reasons as well.

The Indian team is headed by Ravi B Grover, Director, Strategic Planning of DAE.

Once the text on safeguards agreement is finalised, it has to be approved by the UPA-Left committee.The text, drafted by the IAEA, is expected to be put before the 15-member political committee for deliberation, the sources said.

The first talks on the safeguards were initiated by IAEA Director General Mohammed ElBaradei and Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar on November 21.