By IANS
New Delhi : Switzerland Wednesday invited India to send an expert to explain the India-US nuclear deal as New Delhi lobbies for Geneva’s support at the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
“I requested the prime minister (Manmohan Singh) to send an expert to explain India’s position,” Swiss Confederation President Micheline Calmy-Rey told reporters.
Pointing out that Switzerland is a member of the board of governors of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the NSG, she noted that her country will eventually have to evolve a stand on the issue.
To operationalise the nuclear deal, India will have to complete negotiations for a safeguards agreement with the IAEA for its civilian reactors and then approach the NSG for changing its rules to permit nuclear trade with New Delhi.
The draft of the bilateral agreement on the nuclear deal will then have to be approved by the US congress, before it is signed by both countries.
To a query if Manmohan Singh had indicated when India will approach the NSG, she replied in the negative.
Calmy-Rey stressed non-proliferation credentials of Switzerland, which is also a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Switzerland has so far not made any official comments on the India-US nuclear deal, indicating its ambivalence.
Saying she was “very satisfied” with the outcome of her three-day visit, she noted that both countries have now decided to ramp up their relations to a “privileged partnership” that involves giving a structure to the mutual dialogue.
She had a full day of appointments Wednesday, meeting President Pratibha Patil, Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari, United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Leader of Opposition L.K. Advani, apart from the prime minister.
“There will be a meeting of experts first, who will identify the areas of focus,” Calmy-Rey told the press conference, switching among English, French and German.
Part of that effort would be to also revise the Treaty of Friendship, signed 59 years ago.
Further, she said that negotiations between India and the European Free Trade Association, comprising of Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, to decide a free trade agreement are slated to begin by the end of the year.