The US on Thursday briefed the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group on the civil nuclear deal as part of its efforts to seek changes in NSG guidelines to allow nuclear trade with India.

A senior American official said “the US wants to meet the entire pre-requisites of the operationalisation of the deal by the end of this year.” India has to work out a safeguards agreement with the IAEA and secure changes in NSG laws to operationalise the deal.

Richard J K Stratford, Director at the Office of Nuclear Energy Affairs in the US State Department, told PTI before getting into the closed-door meeting that he would explain to the members how both India and the US arrived at the agreement.

He said he would also “put forth the conditions asked by India for a clean, unconditional exemption (from NSG rules to enable nuclear commerce).”

Stratford, who is heading the US delegation at the NSG meet, admitted that it could be a tough job. “But we will try to do it, and I am optimistic. We are also going to tell about the safeguards issues which India has to sort out with the IAEA,” he said.

Kakodkar wary
Given the political heat the nuclear issue has generated back home, Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar has chosen to steer clear of any discussions on the deal.

Asked what India would do if the NSG refrained from changing its guidelines, Kakodkar said, “We have our own programme. It will continue. The civilian cooperation with US is only an additionality for a near-term requirement.”
Fast-tracking its moves to get the deal going, the US has been in touch with the 144-nation IAEA.

“I think the US-India nuclear deal is firmly intact. It’s going to be successful,” US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, who was on a visit to Turkey, told a news conference in Ankara.

“You’ll see that (the deal) happen in the next few months,” Burns said.

Ahead of the NSG meet, Kakodkar met IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei and discussed the civil nuclear programme without reference to the 123 deal.

Kakodkar hosted lunch for ElBaradei and chiefs of atomic energy commissions of some countries on the sidelines of the 51st General Conference of the UN nuclear watchdog here.