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India seeks clean waiver from NSG

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New Delhi, Aug 29, IRNA
India-NSG Waiver-Pranab
India's Foreign Minister, Pranab Mukherjee Friday said, "India is seeking a clean waiver from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

"We have made it quite clear that we are interested in clean waiver from the NSG. We have presented our case. We have made our position clear to interlocutors," Pranab Mukherjee told reporters on the sidelines of Foreign Ministerial meeting of Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) in New Delhi.

He was responding whether India was getting an "unconditional" waiver from the NSG after demands for amendment to the draft waiver.

Mukherjee, unlike the earlier comments, did not talk about India's insistence on the "unconditional" waiver.

New Delhi has all through maintained that the exemption should be "unconditional" failing which it will not accept it.

Soon after the 21st-22nd August meeting of the NSG failed to arrive at a decision on granting waiver to India because of objections by several member countries, Mukherjee had said India would not accept any "prescriptive conditions" in the revised draft.

This stand was maintained despite the US asking India not to talk about "unconditional" waiver as it was "provocative" and could create difficulties.

The US has been saying that it was trying for a "clean exemption".

Mukherjee's comments came amid indications that a number of amendments have been made to the revised draft that will be presented at the NSG meet on 4th-5th September in Vienna.

Mukherjee said India is working through interlocutors (US) and directly with the NSG countries to garner support for the exemption.

"We shall have to wait for final outcome which will be available to us after September 4-5 meeting," he said.

At the last meeting of the NSG, at least 15 countries, including New Zealand, Austria, Norway, The Netherlands and Switzerland, sought changes in the draft and proposed amendments so that the waiver addresses their concerns with regard to non-proliferation issues.

The skeptic countries were particularly insisting on incorporating clauses which would deny India enrichment and reprocessing rights and automatically end cooperation if New Delhi were to carry out a nuclear test.

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