India threatens to link Kudankulam deal with Russia to NSG membership

India has reportedly sought to strong-arm Russia into supporting its thrust for membership to the 48-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), threatening to stall the deal between the two countries for developing the Kudankulam 5 and 6 reactor units if it does not help India in this regard.

According to The Times of India, the development came when India and Russia reviewed their bilateral cooperation last week ahead of the summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin on 1 June.

According to the report, India has threatened to put on hold a memorandum of understanding with Russia for developing the Kudankulam reactor units, prompting Moscow to think that New Delhi wants it to work more proactively for India's NSG membership.

The MoU was supposed to have been signed on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Goa last year. India is believed to have conveyed that unless it becomes a full member of NSG, it would have to instead opt for an indigenous nuclear energy programme. It reportedly wanted Russia to convince China to end its opposition to India's NSG membership.

In August 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa had jointly dedicated to the nation the 1,000 MW Nuclear Power Plant-I, assuring it was one of the safest atomic plants in the world (See: Modi, Putin join to dedicate Kudankulam Unit-1 to nation).

Last week, during a meeting to prepare for the summit between the countries, Russian deputy PM Dmitry Rogozin also took up the issue with the Modi, but did not get any assurance.

Modi will travel to Russia in June to attend St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), where India has been invited as a 'guest country'.

Last year, voicing its concern over India's nuclear capabilities, Pakistan called on the member states of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to make a ''well-considered'' decision over including India, keeping in view the long-term implications for the global non-proliferation regime as well as strategic stability in the region

China has repeatedly blocked India's NSG membership bid despite support from majority of NSG members, on the grounds that New Delhi hasn't signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) (See: China won't budge on India's NSG entry, terror tag for Azhar).

The NSG is a group of nuclear supplier countries that seeks to prevent proliferation by controlling the export of materials, equipment and technology that can be used to manufacture nuclear weapons.