April 2008 - The world's largest democracy and second most populous country, India, has emerged as a major power after a period of foreign rule and several decades during which its economy was virtually closed. From the late 1980s, India began to open up to the outside world, encouraging economic reform and foreign investment. And today it is counted among the world's leading economic and political powers.
However, with time the circumstances have also changed substantially for mutual relationship between the U.S. and India as the two have worked hard to overcome misperceptions. In addition to strategic issues, there are other strong parallels between the Indian and American ethos. India and the U.S. are democracies and religious pluralism is a shared value. U.S. security interests are trade and the free flow of oil and gas from Asia. India's population is of the same magnitude as that of China and in time India has proved the potential to become a major U.S. trading partner. It is expected that U.S. strategic interest will become increasingly more focused on Asia as this area is a rich source of oil and gas, and contains regions of extreme instability.
This civil nuclear co-operation between the United States and India will offer enormous strategic and economic benefits to both countries including enhanced energy security, a more environmentally friendly energy source, greater economic opportunities and more robust nonproliferation efforts. But BJP believes that the Indo-US nuclear deal is going to affect India's credible nuclear deterrent and will 'force the government to surrender the sovereign right of the country to make nuclear weapons'.
However, as BJP continues to oppose the nuclear deal, the government is quietly but informally making preparations for a safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and expects a 'positive outcome' from ongoing negotiations with the UN nuclear watchdog.
According to the Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Anil Kakodkar, “I have always worked in a positive way. I am optimistic that the negotiations with the IAEA will have a positive outcome.” He indicated that the bilateral talks were in progress and hopes were high about the completion of the ‘U.S. India nuclear deal.’
India and the IAEA have held four rounds of talks in Vienna to finalize the draft on India-specific safeguards agreement that will ensure uninterrupted fuel supplies and New Delhi's right to set up a strategic reserve of fuel. India would also be eligible to buy U.S. dual-use nuclear technology, including materials and equipment that could be used to enrich uranium or reprocess plutonium, potentially creating the material for nuclear bombs.
The most critical factor is that the draft of the IAEA pact has to be first approved by the Left parties before the Indian government could proceed with the nuclear deal.
Kakodkar batted vigorously for nuclear energy. “We have been working on a domestic program with the aim of using atomic energy as much as possible to produce electricity. But the energy requirements are much more than this and hence efforts are being made for an international civil nuclear cooperation,” he said.
Caught up in India's domestic politics, time is running out for the deal. Still to come are clearances from the IAEA board of governors and the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). The US timetable wants to wrap up the NSG exemption and submit documents for the final up-down vote to the US Congress by early 2008 as a short legislative calendar before the November 4 U.S. election could complicate its passage.
At this moment, nobody expects the safeguards agreement process to take too long, but equally nobody is quite sure how long this could take.
The India-specific parts of the new safeguards agreement will essentially be two - building in fuel supply assurances into the agreement and putting in the new reprocessing facility. It is this final language that, sources said, would need to be worked on. Depending on who you're talking to, the process can take anything from days to weeks.
The first step is to have a ready text that the two sides can tweak at the last minute. That process is currently on, albeit out of the public domain.
On the fuel supply assurances, India's effort will be to incorporate a system where it can take "corrective measures" if fuel supplies are cut off to the safeguarded reactors.
This is a tough call, particularly to get it through the IAEA and NSG brass. This has been one of the trickiest parts of the entire nuclear deal. 
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