New Delhi, August 29
Top Indian officials were today examining the revised text of the draft waiver to be presented at the NSG meeting on September 4-5 even as New Delhi reiterated that it would not accept any conditions outside the July 18, 2005 civil nuclear cooperation understanding with the US while seeking a clean exemption from the 45-member cartel. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar said there was no change in New Delhi’s position that it wanted a clean waiver from the NSG. Their statements came as top government sources indicated that the amended draft for NSG waiver was ready. India was studying the language of the draft to see if it was within the parameters of the July 18, 2005 agreement.
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) today witnessed a flurry of activity with top aides of Manmohan Singh engaged in video-conferencing with Foreign Secretary Shiv Shanker Menon, who had discussed the amendments in the draft with state department officials. The sources said the Indian side was minutely going through each and every word of the revised draft and was likely to give its clearance to the US side in a day or two. The US authorities claim to have struck a fine balance between addressing the concerns of the NSG sceptics and India’s insistence on a clean
waiver without conditions.
Although the draft was modified by India and US officials together, it would be examined independently once again to ensure that New Delhi was not being led up the garden path, the sources added.
The foreign minister, talking to reporters on the margins of a meeting of the foreign ministers of seven BIMSTEC countries, said, “We have presented our case, we have made our position quite clear to our interlocutors.” The minister was asked whether he was confident about the NSG clearing an exemption for global nuclear commerce with India. Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar, a key Indian interlocutor on the nuclear deal, also categorically asserted that New Delhi would not accept any conditions outside the civil nuclear understanding between India and the US.
“We have done everything that was possible. We can’t accept any more conditionalities,” Kakodkar said on the sidelines of a lecture he delivered on “Managing Atoms for Human Welfare” at Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA).
He was responding to reporters’ queries about about likely changes in the proposed waiver in the NSG. “The whole thing has to be within the parameters of the July 18, 2005 civil nuclear understanding,” he emphasised. “Language may change but the substance will not change,” he said when asked to comment on speculation about likely changes in the language of the draft of the NSG exemption. “The country has all along had a standing policy and it remains,” he said while referring to India’s volunatary moratorium on nuclear testing. “I am an optimist. I am a realist. I always keep my feet on the ground,” he said when asked whether he was confident about winning a clean waiver from the
NSG.
