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US-India nuclear deal faces crucial test from NSG

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-21 10:03

VIENNA - A civilian nuclear deal between India and the United States faces a crucial test on Thursday when the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) meets in Vienna.

A green light by the NSG is required for the 2005 deal to proceed to the US Congress for final ratification.

The United States has proposed waiving a ban on nuclear trade with India without conditions, such as compliance with a nuclear test ban or sanctions if India should test a nuclear device.

The deal would lift a 34-year embargo on nuclear trade for civilian purposes with India, which has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty and has tested atomic bombs.

India expects to receive a "clean and unconditional" waiver, but some NSG member states are pushing for conditions.

This makes it unlikely that the US draft waiver to be discussed at the two-day NSG meeting will pass without amendments, diplomats say. A second meeting may take place in early September to consider such amendments.

New Zealand, which is among a group of countries especially critical of the deal, has listed its main grievances with the exemption for India.

In an interview with The Times of India published on Wednesday, Defence Minister Phil Goff said his country was considering whether the waiver should be void in case of another atomic bomb test; whether it should be conditional on wider U.N. inspections of Indian nuclear sites; and what was necessary to prevent the transfer of technologies with possible military use.

US legislation on the India deal, known as the Hyde Act, contains similar conditions, but the US government's draft waiver does not include any of them.

"Like a number of countries we do have reservations about aspects of the content of the draft exemption recently circulated," Goff said in the interview.

"We would like to see these reservations given full and effective consideration so that we could have added confidence in the non-proliferation benefits an exemption might bring."

Other countries in the group of sceptics include Ireland, Austria, Switzerland and Norway. Apart from the United States, France, Russia, Canada, Brazil and South Africa are in favour of the deal, diplomats say.

India insists on the right to carry out nuclear tests if there is a national security requirement. Surrendering that right would make it difficult for the government to survive politically.

If the waiver does not receive NSG approval next week or at a second meeting next month, it may not be ratified by the end of September, when the US Congress adjourns for November elections, and could face indefinite limbo.