‘Indo-Russian N-deal is ready’

NEW DELHI: When prime minister Manmohan Singh went to Moscow last year, the main ticket on the agenda was a nuclear co-operation agreement with Russia. Anil Kakodkar, the chief of India’s atomic energy commission, was part of the delegation.

However, nothing happened, no deal was signed and the Indian side were tight lipped about it. In fact, the Indian officials tried to suggest that the whole thing was made up by the media.

Russian ambassador to India Vyacheslav Trubnikov on Thursday cleared the air about the India-Russia nuclear agreement. He told reporters in the capital that everything had been fleshed out and the agreement is ready. But around that time, a senior French minister had said that while a similar agreement had been worked out with them, the French government would wait till the IAEA safeguards agreement and the nuclear suppliers’ group waiver had been cleared, before going ahead with the deal.

After the French took this position, India and Russia both agreed it would be better to wait than fly against international opinion. Though Trubnikov did not say that it was New Delhi which backed out, well placed sources in the government said at that time that it was pointless to antagonise the US and other members of the international community, when the co operation was needed for the NSG waiver from every member country.

The idea was that India did not want to displease the international non proliferation lobby and mainly the Bush administration, which was furious when a memorandum of understanding on nuclear cooperation was announced during president Vladimir Putin’s visit to India. The envoy also tried to explain why India and Russia have been sparring over the escalating costs and delay in the delivery of Admiral Gorshkov, the aircraft carrier the Indian navy urgently needs.