“What is required is to convince the NSG of the non-proliferation benefits of the deal,” Richard J K Stratford, Director at the Office of Nuclear Energy Affairs in the US State Department, said. “We are also putting forth India’s case for clean, unconditional exemption and we are trying hard on that,” he said.

Asked whether there was a definite time-frame for getting the NSG to change its rules, Stratford, who led the US delegation at the NSG meet, said “yes, we have a time-frame and we have to focus on the non-proliferation benefits of the deal”.

About Thursdays’ briefing by the US to the 45-member grouping on the deal, he said “it went off extremely well.” There were 100 people from 33 countries who attended the two-and-a-half-hour-long interaction.

Stratford said he gave the initial briefing on the 123 Agreement for 45 minutes and focussed primarily on “really hard issues” the US and India resolved before finalising the pact. He also gave all the members copies of the 123 Agreement and explained to them various sections of the text. “I explained to them how we resolved the issues and agreed” to the text of the agreement, Stratford said.

India needs to firm up a safeguards agreement with IAEA and secure changes in NSG guidelines to implement the deal.

Asked what was the feedback from the participants, he said “the Irish came with a long list of written questions while six more countries also asked hard questions and I took a long time to explain to them.”

The US wants to meet the entire pre-requisites of the operationalisation of the deal by the end of this year.
The US also explained about the safeguards issues which India has to sort out with the IAEA.