Washington, July 15 (Inditop.com) The US Wednesday assured India that it should have no apprehension that the G-8 decision to put a bar on helping non-NPT countries to reprocess uranium would throw the India-US civil nuclear deal off track.
“I don’t think there should be any apprehension about the future of the civil nuclear agreement,” Assistant Secretary for South Central Asian Affairs Robert O. Blake told reporters ahead of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to India.
“The secretary and the president (Barack Obama) are fully committed to that agreement. I think the Indians are also fully committed,” he said adding the US was looking forward to India filing the list of its safeguarded facilities with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
After that India and the US are going to start the reprocessing talks towards the end of July or August, Blake said. “So all of this is on track.”
During Clinton’s visit, the US also hopes to sign an agreement on end use monitoring and another agreement on two sites which would be made available exclusively to the US for setting up nuclear reactors offering a major opportunity for American companies that could bring $10 billion in business to them, he said.
“So I would discourage any talk that the agreement is off track,” Blake said.
