Refraining from making any mention to the Indo-US nuclear deal at the International Atomic Energy Agency conference, India's Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar said India Wednesday was looking forward to "sustainable" international civil nuclear cooperation "free from interruption".
Taking note of political sensitivities back home, Kakodkar, in his address to the 51st General Conference of the IAEA also made no reference to the India-specific safeguards agreement with the UN nuclear watchdog.
The safeguards agreement and change of Nuclear Suppliers Group rules are mandatory to operationalise the nuclear deal.
"We are looking forward to the possibility of opening up of international civil nuclear cooperation," he told the 144-nation organisation. "We expect such cooperation to be sustainable, free from interruptions and consistent with our national policy of closed fuel cycle," he stressed.
After the bitter experience at Tarapur when US stopped nuclear supplies in the wake of the 1974 nuclear tests carried out by India, New Delhi has sought to factor in all its concerns and secure guarantees for uninterrupted fuel supplies for its reactors.
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