Date:18/11/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/11/18/stories/2007111854751000.htm

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India has not tilted towards U.S.: Pranab

Gargi Parsai

AICC resolution says nuclear deal will end India’s isolation

. — PHOTO: RAJEEV BHATT

THRASHING OUT ISSUES: Congress president Sonia Gandhi with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee at the All-India Congress Committee meeting in New Delhi on Saturday

NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is the Convener of the UPA-Left Nuclear Committee, on Saturday refuted the “general belief” that India had given up its independent foreign policy and had tilted towards the U.S.

Referring to the 123 Agreement, he said the government had neither compromised India’s national interests nor surrendered its strategic programme. “The deal enables India to empower itself and gain access to technology without which India cannot develop and aspire to become a superpower.”

Addressing an All-India Congress Committee meeting here, Mr. Mukherhee as well as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi refrained from naming the Left parties or making any reference to India approaching the International Atomic Energy Agency for working out an India-specific safeguards agreement and spoke in one voice about the deal and its importance for India.

Dr. Singh said India was in the process of finalising a “historic agreement” with the U.S., and that would enhance the country’s prospects of increasing the production of nuclear power. “There are doubts and misgivings in many minds about this agreement,” he said.

An AICC resolution maintained that “international cooperation on our terms within an overall framework of self-reliance was the founding principle of India’s nuclear programme.” The agreement would end India’s isolation in the international community and would enable it to access technology to significantly increase the contribution of nuclear energy to electricity supply over two decades.

“The AICC has no doubt that the nuclear agreement protects India’s fundamental strategic interests in every way,” said the omnibus resolution.