World | India
Nuclear states nearing deal to lift ban
The United States said yesterday nuclear supplier nations were making progress towards agreement on lifting a ban on trade with India, after Washington revised a proposal for the move to meet a raft of objections.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:20 September 5, 2008
- It is a 45-nation cartel that controls trade in "dual-use" nuclear fuel, materials and technology to ensure they are applied only to civilian nuclear energy programmes, not diverted into clandestine nuclear weapons work.
- The NSG was formed in reaction to India's shock 1974 nuclear test explosion, using reactor technology provided by Canada in the 1950s supposedly for peaceful energy development.
- Group policy has been to do business only with countries belonging to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty - the only outsiders are India, Pakistan and Israel - and permitting "full-scope" inspections by the UN nuclear watchdog.
Vienna: The United States said yesterday nuclear supplier nations were making progress towards agreement on lifting a ban on trade with India, after Washington revised a proposal for the move to meet a raft of objections.
US officials, scrambling to finalise a US-India atomic energy deal, have been lobbying others in the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group for a one-time waiver to its rules against doing business with states outside the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Ahead of a two-day NSG meeting that began yesterday, some members said changes made to the US waiver draft were cosmetic and did not allay concerns the deal could subvert treaties meant to stop the production or testing of nuclear weapons. In a sign of its desire to save a major Bush administration initiative, Washington sent its No. 3 diplomat, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns, to Vienna to head the US NSG delegation.
"We are making steady progress in this process and will continue to make progress," he said outside the closed meeting.
"And while a number of representatives here have raised important questions that need to be addressed, our discussions have been constructive and clearly aimed at reaching an early consensus," Burns told reporters. He took no questions.
Reservations
Two diplomats in the meeting said a six-nation bloc that had spearheaded demands for explicit conditions on trade with India was splintering and other significant nations that had expressed reservations, such as Japan and Canada, had now dropped them.
But another diplomat said the "like-minded" bloc of Ireland, Switzerland, Austria, New Zealand, Norway and the Netherlands was holding firm, with backing from China. With the outcome still unclear and likely to require consultations in capitals for a final decision, diplomats said another meeting might have to be held later this month.
Without NSG action in early September, the US Congress may run out of time to ratify the deal before it adjourns at the end of the month for autumn elections, leaving the matter to an uncertain fate under a new president.
India has ruled out major conditions on an NSG exemption in order to protect its strategic nuclear sovereignty.
Washington and some allies assert the US-India deal will move the world's largest democracy towards the non-proliferation mainstream and fight global warming by furthering the use of low-polluting nuclear energy in developing economies.
Critics fear India could use access to nuclear markets abroad to boost its atomic bomb programme and drive nuclear rival and fellow NPT outside Pakistan into an arms race.
Policy: Cooperation
The Nuclear Suppliers Group met in Vienna yesterday in another attempt to agree to terms for lifting a ban on trade with India to help finalise New Delhi's nuclear cooperation deal with Washington.
Here are some facts about the NSG:
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