India to seek full integration with global N-mainstream:Sharma

NIGERIA: Notwithstanding the current uncertainty surrounding the atomic cooperation with the US, India on Tuesday made it clear that it will seek full integration with the global nuclear mainstream and there was no timeframe for reaching the safeguards agreement with IAEA.
    
Without mentioning the Indo-US nuclear deal, Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma said, in an apparent message to the Left parties, that isolation from global nuclear mainstream was going to hurt.
    
"India will continue to seek full integration with global (nuclear) mainstream," he said on board the PM's special aircraft on way to Johannesburg from Nigeria.
    
Sharma said he would not comment on the statement made on Monday after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's tele-conversation with US President George Bush. The statement mentioned that Singh had told Bush that certain difficulties had arisen in operationalisation of the deal.

"We have already made a statement (after the telephone conversation). It will not be appropriate for me to comment on it. But I am making one thing clear; India will continue to seek full integration with the global mainstream."
    
"In this chapter of Indian renaissance, surely isolation from global mainstream is going to hurt. But I am sure that India's return to nuclear regime and removal of restraints of the last three decades will truly be serving the national interest," Sharma said.
    
"To remain isolated in civil nuclear cooperation does not serve our national interest. We will have to end it," he said.
    
Sharma said that the UPA government is a strong and stable government and not a single issue government.
    
"After all, we are in a coalition. And in a coalition, efforts are always made to evolve a consensus on every issue," Sharma said.
    
To a question about approaching the IAEA for a safeguards agreement in the wake of current uncertainty, he said there was no timeframe for going to the IAEA.
    
To another question, Sharma said Brazil and South Africa, both members of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers' Group, have their own positions on nuclear proliferation but have expressed support to India at the NSG.

Sharma dismissed as not correct perception a view that India was having a uranium obsession. He said people take a narrow view when an initiative and effort is taken in this direction.
    
"But when you look at the energy scene, India's requirements are growing fast and it will be huge and enormous," he said.
    
"Therefore, any country and its political leadership look at all the available energy resources and to have an ideal energy mix. We will access clean source of energy and nuclear energy is one of them.
    
"If you look at any other countries like France, Russia and Germany, nuclear power is a major source of energy," he added.
    
Contrary to various impressions, he said India also has a dedicated civilian nuclear energy programme and 'we shall continue to expand and develop it'.
    
"When it happens it is not that something is happening new today. It is not in the last few weeks of debate. It has taken a few years of this engagement."
    
"Looking at alternate sources, we are very clear in our understanding as a responsible government. The political leadership of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his government is seeking to ensure India's energy security and to serve India's supreme national interests," he said.
     
To another question, Sharma said, "nuclear energy is not a unidimensional issue and we have to look at the larger picture of cutting edge technology and duel use. India has its own indigenous civil nuclear programme for peaceful use."
     
He went on to add that IAEA Director General Mohammed El Baradei has said that India is emerging as a global player which is universally acknowledged and it will be able to export nuclear technology.