India, US may finalise reprocessing pact in 10-12 days

Ajay Kaul
On Board PM's Special Aircraft, Nov 29 (PTI) India and
the US are expected to finalise a crucial agreement on
reprocessing under the landmark civil nuclear deal in 10-12
days, with all but one issue being resolved and negotiations
centring around finalising a mutually acceptable legal text.

"We have arrived into the last stage of negotations...

only one issue remains, that of finalising the legal text,"
India's National Security Adviser M K Narayanan told
journalists accompanying the Prime Minister on his return home
from a two-nation tour of the US and Trinidad and Tobago.
The two sides were racing against time to conclude the
agreement for setting up of dedicated reprocessing facility
in India before the meeting between Indian Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh and US President Barack Obama in Washington on
Tuesday but could not do so.
The setting up of reprocessing facility under
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards is a key
requirement for implementation of the Indo-US civil nuclear
deal that was signed last year.
Negotiations had gained momentum after intervention at
the highest level, Narayanan said.
The negotiations are almost complete and one more round
of discussions will be required to clinch the agreement,
"possibly in 10-12 days", sources said.
They said the two sides have resolved two of the key
issues that were holding up the conclusion of the agreement.
These were questions like whether one or more dedicated
facility should be set up and what should be the type of
security for these installations which will reprocess spent US
nuclear fuel. (More) PTI AKK
MYR


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