With External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signing the Indo-US civil nuclear cooperation agreement, India is now working towards a December deadline to conclude different inter-governmental agreements and then operationalise commercial deals by signing the IAEA safeguards agreement.

Early December is when Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will visit India, and when the Indo-Russian agreement for civil nuclear cooperation will be signed. With intense pressure from the US, Russia and France to effect long-term commercial deals, sources said, India has decided to operationalise all three agreements simultaneously. In fact, France is said to be keen on starting uranium supply immediately and wants India to sign the agreement that would allow Areva to set up European Pressurised Reactors in India.

Looking beyond, India has extended an invitation to Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev to be the chief guest at this year’s Republic Day Parade. Kazakhstan has 15 per cent of the world’s uranium reserves and is an important prospective seller for India. Negotiations are also underway with Niger for uranium, shortage of which is currently hampering the Indian programme.

While Australia, which has the world’s largest uranium reserves, is restricted by its policy not to sell nuclear fuel to countries that have not signed the NPT, sources said possibilities are being explored to sell from Africa, where some Australian companies own mines, as Canberra does not want to lag behind in bidding for the Indian market.

But before all of this, sources said, the government will first initiate a debate in Parliament with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee expected to make statements right at the start of business in the upcoming session of Parliament starting October 17.

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