Nuclear Suppliers Group discusses India-US nuclear deal

Posted 08 22 2008 3:49PM

VIENNA (AFP) - The Nuclear Suppliers Group, which controls the export and sale of nuclear technology worldwide, debated Thursday whether to amend its rules and allow India to share US knowhow.

Gathering at Japan's permanent mission to the IAEA, the highly-secretive 45-member NSG began a special two-day plenary to discuss a US proposal to grant India -- which refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) -- an exemption and allow it access to US nuclear materials and technology.

Under NSG rules, all nuclear trade with India is banned because it refuses to sign the NPT.

The United States argues that the deal, signed by Washington and New Delhi in 2005, will bring India closer to the NPT fold after 34 years of nuclear isolation and help combat global warming by allowing the world's largest democracy to develop low-polluting nuclear energy.

Critics respond that the deal undermines non-proliferation efforts by providing US nuclear technology to a non-NPT state that developed atomic bombs in secret and conducted its first nuclear test in 1974.

They accuse nuclear states in favour of the deal of ignoring the proliferation dangers in pursuit of commercial and political gains.

Russia and France would meanwhile be free to begin nuclear trade with India if the NSG agrees to the US-India deal.

The US-India deal, known as the 123 Agreement, must clear three hurdles before it can come into effect.

The first hurdle fell earlier this month when the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, approved an India-specific safeguards agreement.

The NSG represents the next obstacle before the deal can finally be approved by the US Congress.

No delegates to the NSG were willing to make any comment to reporters upon entering Thursday's meeting or after a special briefing conducted by India at IAEA headquarters.

But unanimous approval is required and some NSG members are openly sceptical about the deal.

Phil Goff, New Zealand's minister for disarmament and arms control, told an Indian newspaper Wednesday that "like a number of countries, we do have reservations."

Austria, Switzerland, Ireland and Norway are also believed to harbour similar concerns.

The Arms Control Association of the United States and several other NGOs and experts called the proposal a "non-proliferation disaster" in an August 15 letter to the NSG's current chair, Germany.

Nevertheless, the United States is confident the deal will go ahead.

"We are hoping to get as wide an approval as possible so that we can move on with regard to having this agreement for Congress to look at," said State Department spokesman Robert Wood recently.

"We think this agreement is very good for the United States and India and for the international community, otherwise we would not be pursuing this."

Vienna-based diplomats said the NSG was not expected to make a final decision this week, and that another meeting in early September could be necessary to reach consensus.

A senior US congressman has meanwhile threatened to hold up the deal unless the Nuclear Suppliers Group adopts a provision terminating the deal if India conducted a nuclear test explosion.

Howard Berman, chairman of the House of Representatives foreign affairs committee, said that without such a condition, the deal could not be approved before Bush leaves the White House in January 2009.

Two Democratic lawmakers, writing Wednesday in the New York Times, said the deal between New Delhi and Washington threatens to accelerate India's arms race with Pakistan, notably after Tuesday's resignation of Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, an important US ally in South Asia.

"This deal was foolish when Pakistan was relatively stable; with Mr. Musharraf gone, an arms race on the subcontinent would likely be more difficult to control," warned Edward Markey and Ellen Tauscher.

Time may also not be on the Bush administration's side, as the US House and Senate will adjourn in late September ahead of the presidential and congressional elections less than two months later.