WASHINGTON, Feb 20: US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns will discuss a new Indian proposal for ending the dispute over India’s fast breeder reactors when he arrives in New Delhi on Wednesday for a last-ditch attempt to save the Indo-US nuclear agreement, it is learnt through diplomatic sources.
Both India and the US are trying to finalize the deal, initially signed in Washington on July 18, before President George Bush arrives in New Delhi on March 1.
Under a compromise formula India recently sent to the US, New Delhi has proposed a phased implementation of the plan to separate Indian civilian and military facilities. This arrangement will keep India’s fast breeder reactors out of the purview of international safeguards till 2,010.
New Delhi hopes that by 2010, the reactors will be operational and wants to keep them out of the reach of IAEA inspectors till then. The July 18 agreement requires India to separate its civilian and military nuclear facilities and allow inspectors from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect all civilian nuclear installations.
The compromise formula was formulated at a recent brainstorming meeting in New Delhi attended by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, National Security Adviser M. K. Narayanan, Cabinet Secretary B. K. Chaturvedi, top officials of the department of atomic energy, Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and India’s ambassador in Washington Ronen Sen.
Mr Burns will spent two days in New Delhi, discussing various proposals, including the compromise formula, with the Indian foreign secretary and other officials to end the dispute over the separation of India’s civil and nuclear facilities.
The negotiations had got bogged down over Washington’s insistence on placing India’s fast-breeder reactor programme in the list of civilian facilities. In January, the US told the Indian administration that it would be difficult to convince US lawmakers to endorse the agreement, if the fast-breeder programmed was not put under safeguards.
