New Delhi, August 8
The US is understood to have addressed most of New Delhi’s concerns while giving final touches to the draft it has circulated to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) for seeking exemption for India for joining the international community in nuclear trade.
It is believed that the Indian side had objected to a line in the draft that pertained to full-scope or comprehensive safeguards. Paying heed to India’s objection, this paragraph has reportedly been deleted.
According to sources, the deadlock in the thorny negotiations between India and the US over the draft was resolved due to some deft handling of the complicated matters by national security adviser M.K. Narayanan and foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon, who were in close contact with key officials of the US administration.
India is understood to have contended that since it is not a member of the NSG, the guidelines of the 45-nation group are not essentially meant for it.
Recently, Anil Kakodkar, head of the Department of the Atomic Energy (DAE), was also quoted as saying in the media that while India would maintain its responsible behaviour all along, it would expect the international community to also treat New Delhi the way it was. The prescription of the NSG, which has a comprehensive safeguards agreement as a condition for supply, was clearly not applicable in the case of India, he had pointed out.
Germany, the current chairman of the NSG, has convened a meeting of the NSG on August 21-22 to discuss the US draft. Indications are that some of the member countries would request Germany to convene another meeting of the grouping, possibly in early September, by when each of the member-nations would have finalised their respective stands on giving exemption to India.
Both India and the US are hopeful that the NSG nod would come in early September as that would enable the Bush administration to take the 123 agreement to the US Congress for approval of operationalising the Indo-US nuclear deal.
