New Delhi: India and the US on Monday held talks on finalising the bilateral civil nuclear agreement with New Delhi insisting that full civilian nuclear cooperation, as promised in the July 18, 2005 deal, included access to reprocessing technologies.
The crucial talks, aimed at finalising a large part of the text of the 123 agreement, named after Section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act, will continue over at least the next two days.
The US team for the talks included Richard Stratford, director of Nuclear Energy, Safety and Security in the State Department, and other senior officials.
The Indian delegation included Gayatri Kumar, joint secretary (Americas) in the external affairs ministry, her predecessor S Jaishankar, who is now ambassador to Singapore and had led nuclear talks last year, and Raminder Singh Jassal, deputy chief of the Indian mission in Washington.
The 123 agreement, which will be the sole legal document that will govern the terms of civil nuclear commerce between India and the US, will be crucial in influencing the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group to amend its guidelines in favour of global nuclear trade with India.
India is trying hard to ensure that the controversial portions of the Hyde Act passed last year like the ban on nuclear testing are not included in the 123 agreement.
The US legislation excludes the sale of equipment related to enrichment, reprocessing and heavy water production to India.
India will make a strong pitch for being granted prior consent to re-process spent fuel that the US legislation denies.
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