On Aug. 1 the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) endorsed a "safeguards agreement" with India that would allow inspections of nuclear facilities that India designates as "civilian."
The safeguards agreement is one of the key steps in the implementation of the U.S.-India Nuclear Cooperation Agreement. The remaining steps are a unanimous decision by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to exempt India from its nuclear trade rules and acceptance by the U.S. Congress of the U.S.-India bilateral agreement.
The safeguards agreement is unprecedented in that it was endorsed by the IAEA without India providing an official list of facilities to be covered. The agreement includes exceptional clauses that raise questions about India's commitment to the permanence of safeguards and gratuitously recognizes India's possession of nuclear weapons, even though India is not recognized as a nuclear-weapons state under the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).