‘As good as we could have got’

Hailing the Indo-US nuclear deal, Brajesh Mishra on Friday congratulated the government on the IAEA safeguards agreement and cautioned against re-negotiating the deal.

Mishra, who was the NDA’s National Security Advisor, said the agreement is “very satisfactory” and discounted concerns raised by some over India’s military nuclear programme.

“It is as good as we could have got,” he told Karan Thapar in an interview on CNBC when asked about the safeguards agreement.

Mishra said the specifics of the agreement with IAEA are the same as the 123 Agreement with the US. “If you are satisfied with it (123 agreement), then this is also good.” The government had done a good job on the agreement and “they have my congratulations”.

On concerns raised over India’s independent defence nuclear programme, he said the criticism was unfounded as the agreement mentions New Delhi’s military nuclear programme. “So they are making an exception for India.”