Economic Times

Nuke deal a win-win proposal : IAEA Chief

May 26, 2006

    HAILING the Indo-US civilian nuclear energy deal as a “win-win” proposition, IAEA chief Mohammad El Baradei has expressed the hope that members of the US 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 becomes a partner in the non-proliferation framework. To me, this is a win-win agreement and I hope it will also be for the Congress,” El Baradei said, after an hour long meeting with US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.
 

    “We are also trying to look at the big picture in making sure that we have innovative measures to ensure that sensitive proliferation technology, like enrichment or re-processing, is contained. I talk about multilateral centers, multi-national centers,” he said.

    Rice also said that India was a topic of discussion with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief. “We’ve also talked about the US-India deal and Dr El Baradei has been very supportive — not because he is trying to intervene in US-India relations, but as we have said, because we need to broaden our concept of non-proliferation regime in order to deal with anomalies like the Indian situation,” Rice said in her opening remarks.

The statements of both Rice and El Baradei 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 summer.

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