The Hindu Business Line : Manmohan lines up meetings with leaders to garner support for n-deal

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Manmohan lines up meetings with leaders to garner support for n-deal

K. Venugopal

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Sapporo, July 7 Three years after persuading the US President, Mr George W. Bush, to agree to a nuclear deal with India, and then protractedly engaging with the Left parties to secure their support, the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, finds he has a lot more persuasion to do.

As he flew into Japan this evening for meetings with global leaders on the margins of the G8 summit at the lakeside resort of Toyako in Hokkaido, having only last week won the backing of the Samajwadi Party for the deal, Dr Singh has lined up meetings with leaders of countries that matter at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

On Wednesday, starting at 5 a.m. to drive two hours and 20 minutes from his Sapporo hotel to meet Mr Bush at the G-8 summit hotel at Toyako, Dr Singh will meet leaders of Russia, China, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Korea and Indonesia, countries whose approval India needs before it can hope for international nuclear co-operation.

Although many countries such as the UK, France and Russia have made known their support to the deal, there are some other members of the NSG who seem yet not persuaded to make an exception for India.

International commerce in nuclear supplies has been limited so far to countries that have signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

But Dr Singh appeared confident today of eventually securing their approval too.

“Once we take the decision to go to the IAEA for an agreement, we expect the US to fulfil its commitment to get other nations round to supporting the deal,” he said.

While Dr Singh declined to indicate a time line for taking the agreement to the IAEA — he said he could not reveal that while he was on a foreign trip — he noted the government was fairly close to doing so.

Sources indicated that the Government may wait for another meeting of the UPA-Left parties’ coordination group, slated to take place over the next few days, before heading to the IAEA.