Treading cautiously on the Indo-US nuke deal, visiting IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei said it is "ready" for talks on safeguards whenever India approaches it but remained non-committal over the sensitive issue figuring in parleys with Indian leaders.
The IAEA is ready for talks whenever India approaches me for the talks," IAEA chief told reporters in Mumbai, according to PTI news. "The Indian government will have to take a decision," he said adding, "I will wait for them to come to Vienna to make a formal request (in this regard)."
ElBaradei's remarks came as he prepared to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and others in Delhi in the backdrop of the controversy over the pact and Left parties insisting that the UPA government should not have any safeguards talks with the IAEA.
Asked if he would have a fruitful discussion with the government in the light of present UPA-Left stand-off over the nuclear deal, ElBaradei said, "I have always had fruitful discussions with the Indian government and it will be so in the future as well." ElBaradei also declared that India was a "valuable partner" for the IAEA and was confident that the two will continue to promote the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
On the first working day of his visit, ElBaradei met top Indian nuclear scientists at the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai and then went to a nuclear medicine centre near here to receive a Rs two crore indigenously developed radiation equipment for the treatment of cancer patients in a Vietnam hospital.