India, IAEA still to cover a lot of ground on N-deal

The government's negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have been extended by a day. The Indian team will now return to New Delhi on Friday instead of Thursday.

The government remained tightlipped over the status of the negotiations but officials privately admitted there were "many issues yet unresolved".

In an answer to a parliamentary question on the status of the negotiations at the IAEA, minister in charge of the Atomic Energy Commission, Prithvi Raj Chavan, said, "It is difficult to pre-judge when talks are likely to see a breakthrough."

Interestingly, this fifth, and what was purportedly the last round of talks between the Indian government and the IAEA, is happening amid a high-level visit by US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and repeated warnings by the US administration that it was "now or never" as far as the operationalisation of the Indo-US nuclear deal was concerned.

The repeated warnings of a deadline on the deal finally drove Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon to respond that India "cannot go by any deadline" on this matter. He added India was working on the basis of the original time-frame and was not under "any pressure" to expedite the deal. "This is a negotiation and we have to respect that," he said.

Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar, who was present in Parliament, said he was still optimistic about the talks but did not admit to being "happy" about them. "I will be happy and satisfied provided the results are according to our requirement," he said.

The IAEA talks are just one part of the long road to actualisation of the agreement. The present US administration, which has entered its last lap, is urging a speedy end to the process as a new administration will mean a repeat of the long road already travelled.

The Indian government, on its part, is facing a tough situation with its main ally, the Left parties, opposing the deal.

"Let's face it, China took 12 years to finalise its own deal, we might have to take as long a time," said a senior minister in the government.