A Parliamentary Committee on Thursday asked the government to ensure that the country's 'sovereign and strategic interests' are not compromised with in the talks on civilian nuclear agreement with the US and negotiations with the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the IAEA.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs favoured expeditious resumption of fuel supplies to the country's civilian nuclear plants.
"The committee desired that, without compromising our sovereign and strategic interests, it should be ensured that all these negotiations are led to mutually-agreeable agreements," it said in a report tabled in Parliament.
The timing of the report assumes significance as it comes amidst reports that the US is 'frustrated' over talks on the 123 agreement, that will operationalise the deal, in view of India's position on various aspects, specifically right over reprocessing of spent fuel and future nuclear testing.
The committee noted that India and the US are presently engaged in negotiations on a bilateral agreement (the 123 agreement) that will identify the specific parameters of civilian nuclear energy cooperation and two rounds of talks have been held in this regard.
India and the US are also reportedly engaging members of Nuclear Suppliers Group for bringing about adjustments to NSG guidelines with respect to India to enable full civilian nuclear cooperation.
During the hearing before the committee, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon has declared that 'whatever the government does with the US will not affect India's nuclear strategic programme' and will 'not in any way involve the country's three such indigenous civilian nuclear energy programmes.'
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