NEW DELHI: Apparently rejecting Left criticism, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday suggested that the agreement with Russia for building four additional nuclear reactors in Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu was not signed during his recent visit to Moscow because it was considered premature in the absence of India-specific safeguards with IAEA and NSG.
"It has always been made known to us that the agreement could be operationalised only if we have India-specific safeguards agreement with IAEA and also the NSG gives India exemption from their restrictive guidelines," he said on the way to Singapore to attend the ASEAN summit.
Singh said that since there were "some hitches" in finalising the India-specific agreement with IAEA and India was yet to go to NSG, "it was felt it would be premature to finalise the agreement (with Russia) which we cannot operationalise".
The Prime Minister said discussions were on with Moscow and those four reactors would be in place as soon as "we have India-specific safeguards agreement and get NSG Okay".
India and Russia had entered into a MoU for setting up four additional reactors at Kudankulam, he said.
The Left parties had criticised the government for not going ahead with the agreement with Moscow and had asked whether India was afraid of displeasing the US.
On the prospects of support from Russia and China to the Indo-US nuclear deal at the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Prime Minister sounded hopeful.
"The Chinese have not said they will not support us," he said when asked how hopeful he was about Beijing's backing.
On Russian support, he said he had been discussing the matter with President Vladimir Putin for two years. "The Russians have been very very supportive of India in dealing with IAEA and also we had assurance of support till the matter goes through the NSG."
Asked whether the management of nuclear deal with the allies could have been done differently, he said "there is always scope for improvement. One always learns from experience".
