US okays fuel for all nuclear plants

Bush to co-operate on nuclear energy.

India will, under the agreement reached between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George Bush, be able to get fuel not only for Tarapore but for any other nuclear reactor on the same basis as any nuclear weapon power, Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran said.

Bush has made a commitment to cooperate with India on nuclear energy, and New Delhi, on its part is making a reciprocal commitment to place civilian nuclear reactors and not military nuclear reactors under IAEA safeguards, he told reporters here yesterday.

That, in fact, is what the US and other nuclear weapon powers had done, Saran said.

The principle of reciprocity which had been agreed upon, he said, is very important. "There is very good balance in the joint statement. We have committed ourselves to do exactly what other nuclear states with advanced technology are prepared to do. The principle of reciprocity is very important."

On the talks between Singh and Bush, Saran said "The joint statement represents a very substantive and very significant outcome. It exceeded our expectations."

It would be fair to say that the two leaders have established an excellent chemistry, he said adding the US recognises India's emergence as a very dynamic economic power, that was not only a flourishing democracy but a multi-ethnic plural democracy.

The US recognised how much stability of the world, in fact, hinged upon the role India could play and Washington was willing to partner New Delhi in that quest, Saran said.

Both leaders recognised terrorism as a common global scourge, he said adding this was not surprising because of what happened in Ayodhya and in London.