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US-India nuke deal: 1.. 2 ..3..go
22 Jul 2007, 0001 hrs IST,Chidanand Rajghatta,TNN
WASHINGTON: It took 300 working hours for Indian and American technical experts to put together a 30-page document that constitutes the so-called 123 Agreement which will bring into effect the U.S-India civilian nuclear deal.
As the Indian negotiating team caught a United Airlines flight out of Washington Dulles Airport - named after the architect of the Cold War John Foster Dulles - on Friday night, the warm glow and relief of a strategic breakthrough was evident even through such trivia they bandied about.
Technical experts, led by principally by India's S.Jaishankar and U.S' Richard Stratford, met in New Delhi, Washington, Pretoria, and London among other places to hammer out the complex document that is at the heart of the deal.
The quibbled over commas, footnotes, parentheses, and most famously, square brackets [which is diplomatic jargon for contentious portions of a text.]
But at all times, diplomats said, they were conscious of the political will on both sides to consummate the controversial deal that has critics on both sides.
That hard-fought 123 Agreement, still under wraps except for broad outlines, will now be presented before India's Cabinet Committee on Security for a final seal of approval and to the U.S Congress for a yes-no vote before things start rolling.
Officials declined to speak on record about the details of the 123 agreement, but the broad picture sources offered suggests both sides made important concessions to arrive at a mutually acceptable text sans square brackets.
From India's side, there was never any doubt that it would win the right to reprocess spent fuel from the moment it made the offer a concession - of setting up a dedicated safeguards facility.
The more contentious portion of the agreement related to sanctions and the 'right of return' of materiel and technology in the event of India conducting a nuclear test a congressionally mandated law that Washington said it could not overwrite.
Instead, sources suggested without getting into details, the agreement included language to work around this situation. The language, which Indian negotiators ensured would preclude a repeat of the Tarapur episode, when US invoked sanctions despite guarantees, is to New Delhi's satisfaction.
One key element in the negotiations that finalised the deal was the direct involvement of representatives from India's scientific establishment. Dr R.B.Grover, Director of Strategic Planning Group in the Department of Atomic Energy, participated in the technical talks and ran the developments by Dr Anil Kakodkar, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission.
Kakodkar did not take part in the talks directly, but was a major backroom presence. While the political establishment hopes that this show of consensus will mollify dissenters in the scientific community, the government itself faces the tough task of getting its allies and the opposition on board.
That is why, sources said, it was decided that 123 Agreement would not be released before the CCS had discussed it and the government had briefed allies and key opposition leaders.
In Washington, administration officials are expected to brief key law-makers and their aides on the agreement and bring it up for a final vote soon.
The country's vocal non-proliferation community is expected to raise hell as usual about concessions to India. But the vote in Congress will be a straight up-down, yes-no vote with no amendments allowed, so the administration expects to get it done without too much trouble.
The U.S-India deal ends more than three decades of nuclear isolation for New Delhi, during which time sanctions forced it to develop its own indigenous nuclear industry but also prevented it from tapping into technological advances and exchanges with the rest of the world. With this agreement, India becomes the only country in the world which has not signed the NPT, but can still conduct nuclear trade with the world while retaining its nuclear weapons program.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/US-India_nuke_deal_1_2_3go/articleshow/2223742.cms
22 Jul 2007, 0001 hrs IST,Chidanand Rajghatta,TNN
WASHINGTON: It took 300 working hours for Indian and American technical experts to put together a 30-page document that constitutes the so-called 123 Agreement which will bring into effect the U.S-India civilian nuclear deal.
As the Indian negotiating team caught a United Airlines flight out of Washington Dulles Airport - named after the architect of the Cold War John Foster Dulles - on Friday night, the warm glow and relief of a strategic breakthrough was evident even through such trivia they bandied about.
Technical experts, led by principally by India's S.Jaishankar and U.S' Richard Stratford, met in New Delhi, Washington, Pretoria, and London among other places to hammer out the complex document that is at the heart of the deal.
The quibbled over commas, footnotes, parentheses, and most famously, square brackets [which is diplomatic jargon for contentious portions of a text.]
But at all times, diplomats said, they were conscious of the political will on both sides to consummate the controversial deal that has critics on both sides.
That hard-fought 123 Agreement, still under wraps except for broad outlines, will now be presented before India's Cabinet Committee on Security for a final seal of approval and to the U.S Congress for a yes-no vote before things start rolling.
Officials declined to speak on record about the details of the 123 agreement, but the broad picture sources offered suggests both sides made important concessions to arrive at a mutually acceptable text sans square brackets.
From India's side, there was never any doubt that it would win the right to reprocess spent fuel from the moment it made the offer a concession - of setting up a dedicated safeguards facility.
The more contentious portion of the agreement related to sanctions and the 'right of return' of materiel and technology in the event of India conducting a nuclear test a congressionally mandated law that Washington said it could not overwrite.
Instead, sources suggested without getting into details, the agreement included language to work around this situation. The language, which Indian negotiators ensured would preclude a repeat of the Tarapur episode, when US invoked sanctions despite guarantees, is to New Delhi's satisfaction.
One key element in the negotiations that finalised the deal was the direct involvement of representatives from India's scientific establishment. Dr R.B.Grover, Director of Strategic Planning Group in the Department of Atomic Energy, participated in the technical talks and ran the developments by Dr Anil Kakodkar, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission.
Kakodkar did not take part in the talks directly, but was a major backroom presence. While the political establishment hopes that this show of consensus will mollify dissenters in the scientific community, the government itself faces the tough task of getting its allies and the opposition on board.
That is why, sources said, it was decided that 123 Agreement would not be released before the CCS had discussed it and the government had briefed allies and key opposition leaders.
In Washington, administration officials are expected to brief key law-makers and their aides on the agreement and bring it up for a final vote soon.
The country's vocal non-proliferation community is expected to raise hell as usual about concessions to India. But the vote in Congress will be a straight up-down, yes-no vote with no amendments allowed, so the administration expects to get it done without too much trouble.
The U.S-India deal ends more than three decades of nuclear isolation for New Delhi, during which time sanctions forced it to develop its own indigenous nuclear industry but also prevented it from tapping into technological advances and exchanges with the rest of the world. With this agreement, India becomes the only country in the world which has not signed the NPT, but can still conduct nuclear trade with the world while retaining its nuclear weapons program.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/US-India_nuke_deal_1_2_3go/articleshow/2223742.cms
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