The Hindu : International / India & World : India-U.S. deal a "win-win" agreement: ElBaradei

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Friday, May 26, 2006

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International - India & World

India-U.S. deal a "win-win" agreement: ElBaradei

Need to broaden concept of non-proliferation regime to deal with anomalies like India, says Rice

Mohammad ElBaradei

Washington: Hailing the India-U.S. civilian nuclear energy deal as a "win-win" proposition, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohammad ElBaradei, has expressed the hope that members of the Congress, which is yet to approve it, will also see it that way.

"We have ... a number of very important issues on our agenda, ranging from making sure that India become a partner in the non-proliferation framework. To me, this is a win-win agreement and I hope it will be also for the Congress," before which a draft legislation on the pact is currently pending, Dr. ElBaradei said after an hour-long meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice here.

"We also are trying to look at the big picture in making sure that we have innovative measures to ensure that sensitive proliferation technology, like enrichment or reprocessing is contained. I talk about multilateral centres, multinational centres," he said.

Ms. Rice also said India was a topic of discussion with the IAEA chief.

"We've also talked about the U.S.-India deal and Dr. ElBaradei has been very supportive — not because he is trying to intervene in U.S.-Indian relations, but as we have talked about it because we need to broaden our concept of non-proliferation regime to deal with anomalies like the Indian situation," Ms. Rice said in her opening remarks.

The statements of both Ms. Rice and Dr. ElBaradei are important in terms of the civilian nuclear deal in the sense that the legislative process is at a critical stage with the Bush administration keen on getting the formal approval of the Congress at least by the summer.

Iran issue

The IAEA chief and Ms. Rice also stressed that Iran was a major topic of discussion and this too has to be seen in the context of the efforts of the United States, Europe, Russia and China at London where they are supposed to be inching their way forward to some sort of a package to wean Teheran away from the nuclear weapons technology route.

"We talked, obviously, about Iran which is a current crisis we are facing. We discussed ways and means for Iran to come into compliance with the requests of the international community to build confidence in the peaceful nature of its programme."

Ms. Rice said Teheran has to "rapidly comply" with the demands of the international community. — PTI

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