Perpaps to clear the air on the Indo-US nuclear deal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said the safeguards agreement with IAEA will not impinge on India's strategic programme.
There is apprehension of horse-trading and the government should seek vote of confidence at the earliest, said L K Advani, the Opposition leader, on Thursday.
Emerging from the Rashtrapati Bhavan after submitting the letter withdrawing support from the government, CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat told media persons that the draft of the IAEA safeguards agreement must be made public. Claiming that the Manmohan Singh government had not been transparent on the nuclear deal, Karat said the deal will not be acceptable to the Left parties till all the issues raised by them were clarified.
Russia has completed delivery of nuclear fuel for India's Kudankulam Atomic Power Plant, which is in its final stages of construction in Tamil Nadu. According to Russian nuclear energy industry Atomenergoprom's website, the nuclear fuel rods consisting of not more than 4.1 per cent uranium-235 have been delivered strictly under the IAEA guidelines and contractual obligations. The fuels will suffice for the physical launch of one reactor.
The effort made to define the larger picture by focussing on history and the wish not turn differences into disputes and conflicts is welcome. In the obtaining circumstances today, nothing more could have been possible, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs favoured expeditious resumption of fuel supplies to the country's civil nuclear plants.
"Relevant cooperation is in strict accordance with the two countries' international responsibility and is for peaceful aim. We also receive the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said.
Pakistan foreign office spokesman Mohammad Sadiq said that Pakistan is a 'responsible nuclear state' whose atomic weapons are 'as secure as that of any other nuclear weapon state'. Statements expressing concern about the safety and security of the nuclear arsenal are 'unwarranted and irresponsible'.
The meeting of UPA-Left Committee on nuclear issue, scheduled for Wednesday, has been postponed, putting back further a decision on whether India should sign the safeguards agreement with IAEA. The meeting is now expected in the first half of next month.
"India is always against any armed intervention by any country in another country," Pranab said.
Buoyed by the International Atomic Energy Agency's approval of the India-specific safeguards pact, the US on Sunday vowed to push through expeditiously the Nuclear Suppliers Group process but said New Delhi would have to answer a lot of questions to secure a waiver from the 45-nation bloc when it meets later this month.
The ominous explanations of some of the NSG countries in the Board should alert to the perils ahead.
A supporter of the N-deal gives a chilling insight into the deep conviction of the group of nuclear deal supporters in market economy and their unwavering faith in the inherent strengths of India.
Now that the United Progressive Alliance coalition has nine months in office, it must be transparent and accountable to those who pay and elect it to serve the people of India. A single mis-step on the 123 could irreparably damage rather than advance India's national interest
Yang said that China is prepared to cooperate with all countries on peaceful nuclear energy based on International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.
The mistake the enemies of the deal in India and the US are making is to seek satisfaction over their own wish list.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who arrived in Japan on Monday to attend the G-8 summit, met UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to discuss various issues listed on the summit's agenda, including the climate change which tops it.
Backing Iran's right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy, India has said that "no country can put pressure" on Tehran in that respect as it sought establishment of strategic partnership with the oil-rich Persian country.
The Left parties have given notices of breach of privilege against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in both Houses of Parliament on the issue of Indo-US nuclear deal.
As uncertainty over the fate of the civil nuclear deal continues, the United States has said the pact is likely to clear the hurdles at International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers' Group, but the 'main stumbling block' is the internal political process in India. "If the Indian government approves it, I do think that then what remains is to get an agreement with the IAEA and with the NSG. But I think those things are definitely feasible." John Negroponte said.
The crucial meeting of the United Progressive Alliance-Left committee on the India-United States nuclear deal was held in New Delhi on Tuesday, amidst and divergent views expressed by both sides on the issue that further fuelled speculation about mid-term polls.
India is being sold a bill of goods. Yet again.
China is ready to "explore cooperation with all countries for the peaceful use of nuclear energy in accordance with the rules of the IAEA," said Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.
Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar on Tuesday expressed optimism about clinching an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency and implementation of the Indo-US nuclear deal.
The reliability of US information and assessments on Iran is increasingly at issue as the Bush administration confronts the emerging regional power on multiple fronts.
In case of disruption, US and India will jointly convene a group of friendly supplier countries to include nations like Russia, France and the UK to pursue such measures to restore fuel supply.
Lobbying on the Hill is time consuming and cumbersome, but very effective to influence US government policies, asserts Ambassador T P Sreenivasan, deputy chief of mission at the Indian embassy in Washington, DC after the 1998 nuclear tests and during the Kargil War.
The CPI-M on Tuesday warned the UPA government at the Centre would "face the consequences" if it went ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal. CPI-M politburo member Sitaram Yechuri said the outcome of the discussion between India and IAEA regarding the nuclear deal would be conveyed to Left parties by the government on March 17 at the Left-UPA Coordination Committee meeting.
The United Progressive Alliance-Left committee on the Indo-US nuclear deal will meet in New Delhi on March 17 in the face of an ultimatum by the government's Communist allies to make its stand clear on the controversial agreement. The government is likely to present the draft of the India-specific Safeguards Agreement reached with the IAEA at the meeting, which comes at a time when there is a further strain in UPA-Left ties.
"Our aim is to bring the nuclear power plant into production by 2015," Chief of country's Atomic Energy Commission Shafiqul Islam Bhuiyan was quoted as saying by the New Age newspaper on Monday.
"The basic purpose of the whole deal is to cap, reduce and eliminate our nuclear weapons programme," he said.
Trump's decision to call off the visit came just a day after Pompeo had announced that the newly appointed special representative for North Korea Steve Biegun and he will be travelling to North Korea next week to "make further diplomatic progress towards our objective."
"Our advice is not to further escalate tension and defuse the situation through dialogue and discussion."
'Instead of fighting over whatever will be left of the present world, the permanent members of the UN security council should have raised a little finger to arrest the death and devastation around us,' notes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
India has said the stalled agreement for four more Russian nuclear reactors in Koodankulam in Tamil Nadu was not a setback.
If the Ladakh episode has ended, this is the time to find the truth about all the aspects of it and inform the nation and the world, the time is here and now, advises Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
COVID-19 has accomplished what the UN failed to do in the last 75 years by making mankind rally around a mask of unity, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
IAEA chief ElBaradei said participating countries would be required to pledge not to develop dual-use facilities.
India has said that it has difficulty with parts of the IAEA draft.
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