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India pledges support to IAEA

Siddharth Varadarajan

READING THE FINE PRINT: Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar (right) with Ambassador to the IAEA, Saurabh Kumar, prior to the start of the International Atomic Energy Agency board meeting in Vienna on Friday. — Photo: AP

Vienna: In a statement to the IAEA Board of Governors right after the Indian safeguards agreement was approved, Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar pledged India’s support to the further strengthening of the IAEA’s role “in promoting international cooperation and the peaceful use of nuclear energy.”

India, he said, “looked forward to cooperating with the Agency to facilitate the implementation of [the safeguards] agreement in accordance with the provisions of this agreement which, as the Director-General has pointed out, should be read as an integral whole.”

Dr. Kakodkar noted that the safeguards text approved had been negotiated by India and the IAEA “also using the guidance documents adopted by the Board for the purposes of concluding and implementing Infcirc/66 type agreements.”

The safeguards agreement “speaks for itself,” he said, adding, “we see no difficulty in implementing this agreement on the basis of what is stated therein.” India, he stressed, “will implement this agreement in strict accordance with its provisions.”

Describing India’s capabilities in the civilian nuclear sphere, the chairman said nuclear energy had an important role to play in fulfilling the country’s long-term need for electricity.

He also stressed the positive impact India would have on the global climate change once the doors for international civilian nuclear cooperation were opened for it. “We live in an interdependent world and we share the common global concerns on the need to tackle the problem of greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. Nuclear energy, which is recognised today as a clean and environmentally-friendly source of energy that can meet the twin challenges of sustainability and climate change, is indispensable to addressing our common energy future.”

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