On Board Special Aircraft, July 29
India today said the civilian nuclear deal with the US would not interfere with the country's weaponisation programme and hoped to finalise the agreement to operationalise the deal "as soon as possible.”

"Our weaponisation programme will not be interfered with in this arrangement," external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee said in an exclusive interview on board a special aircraft while returning to Kolkata from Bhutan after a three-day official visit.

Mukherjee said the draft agreement hammered out at the official level talks at Washington recently was expected to be released simultaneously by India and the US in New Delhi and Washington some time after August 2.

“The draft will also be put on the government of India website to facilitate a larger discussion,” he said.

Mukherjee said the draft agreement has been 'frozen' and would come up for debate in Parliament on August 13 or 14. The Monsoon session opens on August 10.

The minister said it was not possible to give a time frame by when the agreement could be inked. "It is difficult to say now how much time it will take to ink the pact," he said.

The draft has to be passed by the US Congress and finalising the agreement also depended upon their calendar.

Also, necessary steps have to be taken to have India-specific arrangements with the International Atomic Energy Agency N-deal not to interfere with weaponisation

(IAEA) and to ensure that the Nuclear Suppliers Group make amendments in their guidelines to facilitate supply of nuclear fuel.

Elaborating on how the nuke deal would not impact the country’s weaponisation programme, Mukherjee said it would be wrong to assume the US or any other country would cooperate with India’s weaponisation programme.

Mukherjee said the concerns of various political parties on the nuke deal have been addressed and taken care of.

However, he said one could not expect a consensus because there are “different perceptions in different quarters.”

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already briefed leaders of the Left and the BJP, who have said they would like to have a look at the text before they could make their stands known.

Mukherjee said even when India became a party to the Marrakesh declaration giving effect to the WTO agreement, some parties had reservations. Therefore, he said it would be difficult to expect unanimity or consensus on the nuke deal.

To a question on Indo-Pak ties, Mukherjee disagreed that the current developments in Pakistan was impacting the ongoing peace process. — PTI