US “within reach“ of a deal at NSG meet: reports

04 September 2008

Vienna: The United States may have a deal within its grasp according to diplomats attending the closed-door NSG meet at the historic city of Vienna. The US has put up a revised draft for exemptions in nuclear fuel and technology supply rules for India before the 45 member nations of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

According to media reports from Vienna, one of the representatives at the meet said that a deal was ''within reach''.

The US draft is intended to convince supplier members of the cartel to waive existing rules and regulations in order that India, a non-signatory nation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), can resume trade in nuclear fuel and technologies with other NPT-signatory countries.

Once the entire process of the Indo-US nuclear deal is successfully completed, to the satisfaction of both parties, it will result in the lifting of a 34-year-old embargo on nuclear trade with India.

About two weeks back, an earlier attempt by the US to get such a waiver passed by the NSG failed as some of its members hedged in granting the exemptiosn asked for the US. The revised draft is intended to take on board some of the concerns expressed at the earlier meet.

Before the start of the second round of discussions, US delegation head, and also the third highest ranking member of the US State Department, under secretary of state for political affairs, William Burns, had insisted Washington was making progress. "I believe that we're making steady progress in this process and that we'll continue to make progress," Burns told reporters.