India, IAEA Need More Time for Nuclear Agreement

Indian and international nuclear officials held talks last week but failed to complete an agreement detailing the inspection rules that are required for New Delhi to adopt a nuclear trade deal with the United States, the Calcutta Telegraph reported (see GSN, Jan. 2).

The diplomats met Thursday and Friday at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna and are expected to reconvene for a fourth round of talks in the third or fourth week of January, according to the Telegraph.

The inspections agreement would help pave the way for the trade deal, but Indian leaders are facing a more serious hurdle: domestic opposition from key political supporters.  Four Indian communist parties have threatened to withdraw their backing of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s ruling coalition if he tries to implement the nuclear deal.  The deal would enable India to purchase U.S. nuclear technology and materials if Delhi agrees to allow the nuclear agency to oversee the nation’s civil nuclear program (Rasheed Kidwai, Calcutta Telegraph, Jan. 6).

Both U.S. and Indian officials have expressed a desire to complete the pact before U.S. presidential elections later this year, and one top Indian official Friday cautioned critics not to cripple Singh’s leadership.

“Of course, time is running out.  But one cannot help it.  Either you lose majority, and if a government loses majority nobody is going to have an arrangement with a minority government,” said Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee.  “I have not given up” (Times of India, Jan. 5).

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