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Vienna: Forty-five nations met on Thursday to consider lifting a ban on nuclear trade with India, a move which will help launch a US-Indian nuclear deal.
A green light from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) is needed for the deal to proceed to the US Congress for final ratification.
But some member states and disarmament campaigners fear it could unravel the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which New Delhi has not joined.
Critics in the NSG want to attach conditions to the US proposal for the cartel to do business with India, including full UN inspections of Indian nuclear sites and no more nuclear test explosions.
Peaceful use
A group waiver granting India access to nuclear fuel and technology markets would end a 34-year embargo imposed after it test-detonated a nuclear bomb with Western technology imported ostensibly to develop peaceful atomic energy.
New Delhi is one of only three nations not to have signed the non-proliferation treaty. It conducted another nuclear test in 1998 but is now observing a voluntary moratorium.
India says it expects to receive a "clean and unconditional" waiver. But US legislation enacted in 2006 set conditions for commerce with India including no more test explosions.
This made it unlikely that the US waiver to be discussed at the two-day meeting would pass without amendments, diplomats said. A second meeting is expected in early September to decide the extent of conditions.
"Some delegations gave approving statements but others expressed concerns this morning, and conditions will be tabled this afternoon," a European diplomat said yesterday.
The Bush administration and major allies say the deal will shift India, the world's largest democracy, towards the treaty mainstream and combat global warming by fostering use of low-polluting nuclear energy in developing economies.
But supplier states are anxious to ensure that no items India imports for its civilian nuclear power programme could "leak" into its atomic bomb sector.
Commercial benefits
Arms control groups say nuclear powers who favour the deal are keener to harvest its commercial and strategic benefits than to preserve rules against trade with treaty outsiders who bar comprehensive UN inspections.
Spearheading a drive for conditions on the exemption were a cluster of countries including New Zealand, Ireland, Austria, Switzerland and Norway.
The terms they wanted included an end to any waiver in the event of another bomb test; wider-ranging UN inspections of Indian sites; and no transfers of uranium-enrichment and reprocessing technologies with military applications.
These ideas are all enshrined in the 2006 US Hyde Act.
US congressional leaders have signalled the deal will not be ratified unless the waiver text reflects the Hyde Act.
"An exemption for India would have severe consequences for the non-proliferation system," a Swiss Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
Apart from the US, France, Britain, Russia, Canada, Brazil and South Africa appeared to be in favour of the deal, with others like China, Germany and Japan supportive in principle.
India, which has a history of war and tension with nuclear rival Pakistan, insists on the right to carry out nuclear tests.
Trade control
- The 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) is a 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.
- NSG 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.
- The NSG website says: "(We seek) to contribute to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons through the implementation of guidelines for nuclear exports and nuclear related exports. NSG guidelines are implemented by each participating government in accordance with its national laws and practices. Decisions on export applications are taken at the national level in accordance with national export licensing requirements."
- In 2002, NSG export controls were updated to help prevent the threat of nuclear terrorism as well.
- NSG members are: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Britain, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United States. The European Commission has observer status.
- The cartel normally has one annual plenary meeting and decisions are made by consensus only. Members can also hold consultative sessions. The NSG has no permanent office and details of its deliberations are kept confidential.
- The 2008-09 NSG chairman is Germany.
- 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.
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