Vienna, November 22
Indian negotiators continued their discussions with the IAEA for the second day today on a safeguards agreement which the Atomic Energy Commission chief said was “complex” and has to be worked out.
The discussions at the international atomic watchdog proceeded even as the US Ambassador to the agency expressed confidence that his country’s civil nuclear cooperation agreement with India would be implemented.
Anil Kakodkar, who initiated the process of discussions with the IAEA director-general Mohamed ElBaradei yesterday on an India-specific safeguards agreement as a follow-up of the deal with the US, left for home leaving other negotiators to continue the job.
“The safeguards issues are a serious business involving complex issues. We have to work out all these,” he told PTI before his departure.
Observing that yesterday’s meeting set out a broad outline of the complex issues, he said “we have to take up all the issues related to it.” He declined to elaborate.
The Indian representative on the IAEA’s Board of Governors Sheelkant Sharma said the talks would continue tomorrow.
Ravi B Grover, director, Strategic Planning Group of Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), is among the other officials participating in the discussions with the IAEA team that includes Olli Heinonen, deputy director-general, Department of Safeguards, and Vilmos Cserveney, director, External Relations and Policy Coordination.
India approached the IAEA after the Left parties cleared the move on the condition that the government should not not initial it but bring it back to the Left-UPA Committee.
— PTI
