India hopes to wrap up a safeguards agreement with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) later this month in Vienna before approaching the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) for changes to permit international nuclear commerce.
“We hope to do another round in the middle of January in Vienna. We hope to wrap it up. The discussions are proceeding smoothly,” Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said. “We hope to reach a rapid and satisfactory conclusion.”
India needs to reach a safeguards agreement and then get the nod of the 45-member NSG for operationalising the Indo-US civil nuclear deal.
Asked whether India would seek China’s support at the NSG during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s three-day visit to Beijing, Menon said: “We have not actually come to that stage.”
Talks on Jan 16
Official sources said that the next round of talks is likely to take place from January 16.
The two sides had failed to reach an ‘agreed text’ in the last round earlier this month. It got stuck on the issue of India’s right to hold its strategic reserve to cater to lifetime supply to its civilian nuclear plants.
There was also no meeting point on the issue of corrective measures to be undertaken in the event of stoppage of fuel to power plants, sources said.
It was important that India and IAEA come to an understanding in the next round of talks otherwise India would not be able to meet the deadline to clinch the civil nuclear deal.
Only when IAEA prepares a final agreed text, to be cleared by its Board of Governors, the US can go ahead with its talks.