IAEA meet on July 28 to approve safeguards

8 Jul, 2008, 0541 hrs IST, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: The IAEA has scheduled a meeting of its board of governors on July 28 to approve the India-specific safeguards agreement. The Manmohan Singh government is expected to notify the agreement with the IAEA secretariat in the second week of July.

Reports from Vienna quoting diplomatic sources said a formal announcement on the board meeting will be made after the subject is notified with the IAEA secretariat. The Nuclear Suppliers group (NSG) is expected to meet within days after the IAEA board’s approval of the safeguards agreement.

On his part, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed the hope that the IAEA’s board of governors would take quick decisions. “We have an agreed text which has been agreed to by the staff of the IAEA. I expect then that the process should not take too long. But the board of governors will have to take the call and I cannot anticipate how long,” he said.

Mr Singh said the deal has the support of all major powers — US, Russia, Britain, France. “I don’t expect any problem. But I can’t anticipate how much more time this will take,” Mr Singh said.

Mr Singh will be meeting president George Bush in Japan to discuss the progress on the deal. The US president has been pressing Mr Singh hard to work out the deal.

The non-proliferation Ayatollahs at the Capitol Hill have been warning against rushing the nuclear deal. According to them, the president “gave away far too much and got far too little for the deal.”

An editorial in the New York Times had said it would be “a mistake for the US to try and ram through the remaining approvals by the International Atomic Energy Agency board, the Nuclear Suppliers Group and Congress just to meet the artificial deadline of Bush’s presidency.” The non-proliferation lobby wants detailed discussions both by the IAEA and NSG.

Those engaged in the negotiations with the Left here, however, were hopeful of the IAEA wrapping up the safeguards agreement at the July 28 meeting itself. The efforts are aimed at making the deal for the US Congress’ consideration in the third week of September.