The Indo-US nuclear deal may have plunged the UPA government into a crisis but that is unlikely to come in the way of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh discussing India’s plans to expand cooperation in the civil nuclear energy sector with IAEA Director General Mohammed El-Baradei.

El-Baradei, who reached Mumbai late tonight, will be in Delhi on Wednesday for his meetings with the Prime Minister, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon. He will also meet DAE chief Anil Kakodkar in Mumbai. These meetings still stood confirmed on El-Baradei’s schedule despite the political upheaval between the Congress and the Left.

So at the UPA-Left meeting tomorrow, the government will look to centre its argument around the question of “national prestige” in an international forum It will also tell the Left that talks with the IAEA will “address” the concern raised by the Left, not accentuate it.

The government will re-emphasise its key assurances:

•India will only hold talks with IAEA, there will be no formal signing of any agreement. The Government is willing to even consider holding back the ratification by the IAEA board if the Left allows talks to commence.

•Fuel supply assurances will be categorically stated in the safeguards agreement that will only act as an insurance against any unexpected move, as the Left fears, the US may make in the future.

•No irreversible step will be taken at the IAEA.

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