The agreement with the Government of India for the Application of Safeguards to
Civilian Nuclear Facilities will subject Indian nuclear facilities to UN nuclear watchdog IAEA supervision and will allow New Delhi and the United States to begin the implementation of a civilian nuclear power cooperation treaty.
A draft nuclear cooperation pact between New Delhi and Washington was coordinated last July allowing India to buy nuclear fuel from the U.S. The sale of nuclear fuel to India is still forbidden by international regulations because New Delhi has not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).
The implementation of this deal is the only way for India to facilitate cooperation with nuclear powers without signing the NPT. India refuses to join the NPT, saying that it discriminates against countries that tested nuclear weapons after 1967.
India tested a nuclear weapon in 1974, and the multinational Nuclear Suppliers Group was subsequently founded in 1975 to control nuclear materials proliferation.
However, New Delhi has agreed to divide its nuclear program into military and civilian parts and let the international community monitor the civilian part without it signing the NPT. This is the basis for the deal that has finally been concluded.
Russia welcomed on Friday the signing of the safeguards agreement between India and the IAEA. 14 of India's 22 reactors are expected to come under IAEA supervision by 2014.
"We welcome the decision of the country [India] to put nuclear fuel and nuclear facilities in the civilian nuclear sector under IAEA supervision and safeguards," Alexander Zmeyevsky, the head of the Russian permanent mission at international organizations in Vienna, said at a meeting of the IAEA's board of governors.
