India and US on Monday began a tough round of crucial technical negotiations to finalise the contours of the bilateral civil nuclear pact, called the 123 agreement.
NEW DELHI: India and US on Monday began a tough round of crucial technical negotiations to finalise the contours of the bilateral civil nuclear pact, called the 123 agreement that will make the Hyde act operational and give India access to international nuclear technology.
The US team is led by Richard Stratford, director of Nuclear Energy, Safety and Security in the State Department, while Jai Shankar, India’s ambassador to Singapore, who earlier headed the Americas’ division, has been asked to join the talks.
Raminder Jassal, India’s number two man in Washington is also part of the negotiating team. The negotiations will be tough, though Nicholas Burns had said in an earlier visit that once the two sides agree on the agreement on the separation of India’s civil and military facilities the rest would be a cakewalk. The sticking points now are the US attempt to get India’s voluntary moratorium on future tests made binding by making it a part of the 123 agreement, and New Delhi’s refusal to commit itself. India believes it may have to conduct more tests depending on the situation in the region.
Production of fissile materials, the re-processing of spent fuel and the nature of India’s safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will dominate discussions between the two sides. The US legislation excludes the sale of equipment related to enrichment, reprocessing and heavy water production to India. India will push to change this. The US allows reprocessing rights with prior consent to Japan, Switzerland and the EU.
The US also wants to include a condition in the 123 agreement that entails the US terminating nuclear cooperation with India in case it conducts a nuclear weapon test, a situation that will require New Delhi to return all nuclear equipment and fuel given by Washington. “We want reprocessing rights upfront. Reprocessing is a non-negotiable right,” Anil Kakodkar, India’s top scientist, said last week.
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