New Delhi: Signalling the continuity of policy, the new government has ratified the Additional Protocol, a commitment given under the Indo-US nuclear deal by the previous dispensation to grant greater ease to the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor India’s civilian atomic programme.
The Additional Protocol was ratified last week and this has been conveyed to the Vienna-based IAEA, the global watchdog of nuclear activities, sources said.
The IAEA had in March 2009 approved an additional protocol to India’s safeguards agreement consequent to a pact reached with the agency the previous year to place its civilian nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards.
That agreement had paved the way for the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group to grant India-specific waiver for it to have commercial ties with other countries in the civilian atomic field.
The waiver was necessary as India, despite being a nuclear-armed state, is not a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The ratification is a signal by the Modi government to the world that it is serious in continuing to implement the Indo-US nuclear deal. This assumes significance since Mr Modi is scheduled to meet US President Barack Obama in September.
