Approving the draft India-United States nuclear cooperation agreement reached in Washington last week, the government on said all concerns of India have been adequately addressed.
The nod for the 123 Agreement to operationalise the nuclear deal was given at a joint meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs and Cabinet Committee on Security, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"All concerns of India have been reflected and adequately addressed in the agreement," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said after an hour-long meeting held at the residence of the Prime Minister.
Besides Mukherjee, the meeting was attended among others by Defence Minister A K Antony, Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and Surface Transport Minister T R Baalu.
India's concerns during the tough negotiations in Washington led by National Security Adviser M K Narayanan related to right to test nuclear weapons, guarantees of life time fuel supply and the right to reprocess the spent fuel.
The prime minister will apprise his predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Leader of Opposition L K Advani and Jaswant Singh on the salient features of the agreement.
As part of the consultations, he will meet CP-M leaders Thursday, Mukherjee said adding that the government will make a statement on the agreement on first working day of Parliament, which is slated to commence its monsoon session on August 10.
Mukherjee said that the text of the 123 Agreement was placed before the members at the joint meeting and "they approved the agreement". It would now be tabled in Parliament.
Declining to give details, he said it has been agreed that both countries would make an announcement simultaneously.
The minister said that Narayanan, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission Anil Kakodkar would hold joint press meet soon.
He said that the government had started the consultations on the issue with UPA partners and the Prime Minister would invite the senior BJP leaders to apprise them on the issue.
"Before the Parliament session, we will be able to discuss with other political parties on the issue," Mukherjee said.
Former Indian Space Research Organisation chairman and Rajya Sabha MP K Kasturirangan contended that while the agreement preserves India's right to reprocess the spent fuel from civilian reactors producing commercial power, this right should not transform itself into a "mandatory policy that forces reprocessing on commercial entities that do not consider it economically viable to reprocess the spent fuel".
The signing of the 123 agreement with the US, he said, was the first step in a fairly long process that required various measures to be taken in order to transform the potential raised by the deal into tangible benefits for the country.
Describing the conclusion of the agreement as a "significant step forward", Gopalan Balachandran, a defence expert, noted that much needed to be done before the agreement could be presented to the US Congress for approval.
These included amendments to Nucler Suppliers Group guidelines for nuclear transfers between India and NSG members. The government would also have to conclude India specific IAEA safeguards agreement with the nuclear watchdog.
Thereafter, India will have to negotiate separate nuclear cooperation agreement with the supplier countries before actual commerce can begin, he said.
