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India flexes Moscow muscle, snubs US N-suppliers New Delhi, December 9 Officials and ministers in the Prime Minister’s Office, it is learnt, were discreetly advised not to meet the delegation ostensibly on the plea that it comprised junior-level officers. However, the real reason is that New Delhi wants to leverage its deal with Russia to push American companies into pressurising the US establishment to expedite the ongoing negotiations on enrichment and reprocessing agreement to facilitate the full implementation of the Indo-US nuclear pact. These negotiations were slated for completion before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s November visit to Washington but the two sides were unable to arrive at a mutually acceptable text for setting up of a dedicated reprocessing facility in India. This a key requirement under IAEA safeguards for the implementation of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal signed last year. American companies cannot do nuclear trade in India unless all these procedural wrangles are out of the way. Highly placed UPA sources admitted that since America was dragging its feet on this issue, New Delhi had not just inked a civil nuclear deal with Russia but made it a point to tout it as a “major improvement over the 123 agreement” signed with the US. This pact will give Russian companies a clear head start in India. While Russia is setting up four additional reactors in Kudankulum and has been allotted a site in Haripur in West Bengal, two sites have been earmarked for the US in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.“We had deliberately delayed an announcement of the two sites chosen for the US reactors. Now that the reprocessing agreement is still to be finalised, it was decided to keep the American companies on tenterhooks,” a senior UPA minister disclosed. India believes that American companies eager to do business here will exert necessary pressure on the US establishment to wrap up all paperwork expeditiously so that they do not lag behind their Russian and French rivals. The civil nuclear agreement finalised during PM Singh’s visit to Moscow allows for uninterrupted uranium fuel supply from Russia and ensures that no ongoing nuclear power project is affected even if the bilateral cooperation between the two countries is terminated. The Indo-French nuclear cooperation agreement also contains a similar clause. On the other hand, the 123 agreement signed with the US lays down that India would have to return the fuel and equipment in case their bilateral agreement is terminated. National Security Advisor (NSA) M.K. Narayanan had told mediapersons on return from the US that negotiations on a reprocessing agreement were in the final stages and would be completed within ten to 12 days. “We have arrived at the last stage of negotiations...only one issue remains, that of finalising the legal text,” he had said. The two sides had resolved two key issues on whether one or more dedicated facility should be set up and the level of security at these reprocessing unit installations. India wants the US to set up more than one facility on the ground that it would benefit the US once it sets up nuclear plants in India. It was agreed that one dedicated facility would be set up initially but a provision would be made for more as and when required. As for security, it was agreed that the facilities will be protected on the same lines as the US, the sources said. The third sticking point was whether reprocessing should be suspended and under what circumstances and conditions.
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