New Delhi:  India today (Dec 12, 2006) said the enabling legislation passed by the US Congress allowing for resumption of full civil nuclear cooperation was a 'big step' towards achieving energy security and asserted that it would not allow external scrutiny of its strategic programme.

"We have also remained clear that our strategic programme is outside the purview of these discussions. We will not allow external scrutiny of or interference with the strategic programme," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee assured the Lok Sabha in a suo motu statement on the India-US civil nuclear cooperation legislation Tuesday.

He, however, added on a cautious note that the government had taken note of certain extraneous provisions and prescriptive provisions in the legislation a reference to a non-binding clause in the final legislation that links New Delhi's position on the Iranian nuclear issue and civil nuclear cooperation.

The minister, however, assured the house that India's conduct of foreign policy is determined solely by our national interests and is our sovereign right.

The US Congress passed the final nuclear legislation after a reconciliation conference last week that promises to open global doors for nuclear commerce with India. US President George Bush is likely to sign the bill into law later this week.

Linking the enabling legislation with the larger goals of long-term energy security and national development, Mukherjee said: "This nuclear understanding with the US is significant from the larger perspective of our energy security."

"We have taken a big step towards that goal and I am sure that the house would continue to support us in this endeavour," Mukherjee underlined, while saying that the chief objective of securing civil nuclear cooperation was the dismantling of three-decades old technology denial regimes that has impeded the country's national development. 

"It's an enabling measure that will allow US negotiators to discuss and conclude with India a bilateral cooperation 123 agreement," he added. 

"Energy security has become a critical constraint in expanding our economic growth and development," Mukherjee said, citing the latest statistics on India's nuclear energy, which presently contributes less than three percent of the country's energy mix.

"Our current estimates envisage nuclear power generation of 30,000 MW by 2022 and 63,000 MW by 2032. The absence of international cooperation constrains us from reaching these nuclear energy targets," he stressed.

Responding to critics who have accused the government of compromising on the country's strategic option and the future of its indigenous nuclear programme, Mukherjee said that "protecting our strategic programme and maintaining the integrity of our three-stage nuclear programme and indigenous research and development" was the guiding principle for the government in its nuclear negotiations with the US. 

"The enactment of waivers from certain provisions of the US Atomic Energy Act, which allows the US to cooperate with India in civilian nuclear energy despite our not accepting full scope safeguards and despite maintaining a strategic programme is significant," the minister stressed.

"We should bear in mind that while every stage of this process is permanent, the test of this process for India is to secure full civil nuclear cooperation with the international community while protecting our strategic programme and maintaining the integrity of our three-stage nuclear programme and indigenous research and development," he said. 

Mukherjee also stressed that the US administration had "categorically assured" the government that that this legislation "enables the US to fulfil all of the commitments it made to India in the July 18, 2005, and March 2, 2006, joint statements".

Three more steps are required before India's quest for global civil nuclear cooperation is translated into reality.

The US and India need to conclude a bilateral agreement that has to be again approved by both chambers of the US Congress.

New Delhi has to negotiate India-specific safeguards and an additional protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the nuclear deal has to be approved with a consensus in the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group.