Embassy Archives What's New/Press Releases

123 agreement of civil nuclear power: External Affairs Minister, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee's written reply in Rajya Sabha

New Delhi
May 3, 2007
(Press Information Bureau)

The External Affairs Minister, Shri Pranab Mukherjee in a written reply to an unstarred question informed the Rajya Sabha today that officials from the Government of India and the Government of the United States have held three rounds of talks on the 123 Agreement from June 12-14, 2006 in New Delhi; March 25-27, 2007 in New Delhi; and April 16-19, 2007 in Cape Town, South Africa. The Indian team was led by Dr. S. Jaishankar, currently High Commissioner of India in Singapore, and included other officials of the Ministry of External Affairs and representatives of Department of Atomic Energy and Prime Minister’s Office. The U.S. team was led by Mr. Richard Stratford, Director of Office of Nuclear Energy, Safety and Security, Bureau of Nonproliferation in the U.S. Department of State. 

India has maintained that our obligations and commitments would be those that we undertake in the bilateral cooperation agreement and that we expect that to reflect the commitments of July 18 Joint Statement and March Separation Plan. The process of negotiating the 123 Agreement is ongoing. Progress has been made on some issues. The final arrangements on various aspects of nuclear cooperation will emerge only after the Agreement has been concluded.