The UPA’s “political” schedule for going ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal — on pause ever since New Delhi returned from Vienna with a draft safeguards agreement over two months ago — may still be dogged by uncertainties of alliance politics but plans have been firmed up for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President George W Bush to hold a separate bilateral meeting on July 9.

At this meeting, which will be held before the breakfast interaction between the G8 and the five Outreach countries, both sides will look towards “telescoping” the timeframe for the IAEA and NSG processes.

Besides conveying India’s intent to proceed with the IAEA safeguards agreement, Singh and Bush will discuss the broad roadmap and provide the all-important “political thrust” to conclude the remaining steps before the new administration takes charge in Washington.

While there are several uncertainties to fixing a specific timeline, sources said, the immediate objective is to obtain an exemption from the Nuclear Suppliers Group by early September so that the matter can be listed with the US Congress soon after.

In this context, both sides are working to ensure that the IAEA and NSG process are combined to save time. Key to this effort is that India confirms the safeguards agreement to IAEA Secretariat before July 15. Once the agreement is submitted, sources said, it will not only be passed on to the IAEA Board of Governors but also put up on the IAEA’s intranet system which is accessible to all IAEA members.

... contd.