India, US move forward on implementation of N-deal

New Delhi: India and the US are in the process of exchanging the inked copies of Administrative Arrangements (AA) for the nuclear deal, paving the way for the implementation of the pact, which was signed seven years ago.

"...After the necessary internal procedures, the signed texts are currently being exchanged between India's Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the US Department of Energy," Spokesperson in the External Affairs Ministry, Syed Akbaruddin, told reporters here today.

The AA, text of which was finalised during the visit of US President Barack Obama in January this year, contains the terms and conditions for the implementation of the landmark Indo-US nuclear deal.

Rejecting reports that Japan was opposing the implementation of the Indo-US nuclear deal on fuel tracking issue, the Spokesperson said, "There is no truth in this assertion... Any purported link therefore between India's AA with the US and India's negotiations with Japan is pure speculation."

He also added that even though no round of negotiations was currently scheduled, discussions between India and Japan on civil nuclear cooperation continue as per the direction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe following their Summit meeting in Tokyo in September, 2014.

"Also, while we value the early prospect of civil nuclear cooperation with Japan, the absence of a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with Japan is currently not an obstacle to ongoing cooperation with our other partners," he asserted.

Meanwhile, government was organising a day-long workshop on Indian Nuclear Insurance Pool (INIP) today to brief and apprise its international partners on setting up of the fund as a part of the overall risk-management scheme for liability.