NEW DELHI, Jul 24 (AFP): India said Thursday it was sending out envoys to lobby for the final international clearances needed to finalise a controversial nuclear energy deal with the United States.
The diplomatic offensive comes after the ruling coalition survived a hard-fought confidence vote in parliament sparked by left-wing and communist opposition to the pact.
Government officials told the AFP that senior cabinet ministers and foreign ministry officials had left New Delhi to solicit the support of members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
Science Minister Kapil Sibal is travelling to IAEA headquarters in Vienna while foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon is in Germany to persuade Berlin, a member of the influential NSG that regulates nuclear commerce, to back the pact.
Another senior government envoy, Shyam Saran, was in Ireland, another NSG member, while National Security Adviser MK Narayanan will head abroad this weekend, with his schedule not yet fixed, officials said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who risked his government to push through the deal, "is now putting in all efforts to get the processes through to get the pact operational," said a senior government official.
"The parliament has given Singh and the government the boost to carry on with implementing the pact," he added.
The agreement, unveiled in 2005, will allow the United States to sell nuclear plants and related technology to India once it has separated its civil and military programmes and accepted a certain level of UN inspections.
India needs IAEA and NSG approval before the US Congress has a final vote. US officials have told India to hurry up before Washington goes into presidential election mode.
On Wednesday, US ambassador to India David C. Mulford said Washington was "actively on its way" to getting the deal through before time runs out.
Former Indian diplomat Arundhati Ghosh said an endorsement from the Group of Eight rich nations, which met in Japan earlier this month, has helped but does not guarantee success.
