The Vienna meet: For India, a time to take stock

22 August 2008

Washington: After an inconclusive meet in Vienna, when the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) failed to ratify a proposed waiver draft for India, Indian foreign secretary, Shivshankar Menon, is now headed for Washington. The 45-member NSG cartel operates by consensus, and so it becomes important for it to take all points of view onboard in order to arrive at a decision.

India is seeking an exemption from the NSG's normal rules of conduct that would allow it to join the international mainstream of nuclear commerce. India is a non-signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and this puts it in a conflicting position with this international cartel. Along with the United States, India is seeking a waiver to a ban on trade in nuclear materials and technologies that has been in place since 1974, soon after this Asian country conducted its first nuclear explosion.

Menon, who reaches Washington on Monday, will have talks with his counterpart, US undersecretary of state William Burns, who now replaces Nick Burns, Washington's former key negotiator on the India-US nuclear deal.

To be fair, it was anticipated that there would be differences of opinion at the meet and a section of 'NPT ayatollahs' would try and put a spanner in the works. Since the cartel is obliged to operate through consensus a second round of meetings was widely anticipated. This has now come to pass and the cartel will meet again on 4-5 September.

Taking a positive outlook on the proceedings, Menon told reporters in Vienna that no NSG member was against giving India a special exemption and the meeting saw a "narrowing of differences" over the issue.

"There has been a narrowing down of differences between the various countries. It is quite a remarkable feat that 45 different sovereign nations should decide to have one point of view over any issue," Menon said.