NSG inconclusive, to meet again on Sept 4

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Nuclear energy to meet rising needs, says PM

In the backdrop of heightened diplomatic manourvering to persuade India to agree to some additional changes in the draft ‘‘special waiver’’ text, the crucial two-day meet of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in Vienna ended inconclusively on Friday, deciding to meet once again on September 4.

The efforts to nudge New Delhi to agree to the changes came from US assistant secretary of state Richard Boucher himself even while he, at the same time, contended that it would not allow them to ‘‘block’’ nuclear co-operation with India. ‘‘We won’t allow anything that will impede (the Indo-US civil nuclear) deal,’’ he said. Boucher will be in New Delhi on Monday to try and persuade Indian negotiators to accept some more amendments raised by some member countries of the NSG.

‘‘There may be changes in the text. But we will not allow any changes that will impede the process or block cooperation,’’ Boucher told newspersons in Mumbai. ‘‘The US and India will have to sit together and see what we can accommodate and what we can’t. We will have to talk to the other Governments involved’’, Boucher said. He did not specify as to what kind of changes would be made in the draft which was moved by the US at the NSG meet on Thursday.

New Delhi, however, has maintained that it will not accept any ‘‘new’’ provisions in the draft.‘‘There is no question of India accepting any conditions or any new provision in the draft,’’ sources said.

Though the draft that has been finalised after tough negotiations between India and the US, it faced hurdles on Thursday at the NSG meet when Austria, Switzerland, Norway, Ireland and the Netherlands—all with strong non-proliferation agendas--sought to put some more conditions.

In Vienna, diplomats deliberating on the special waiver to be granted to India, however, maintained that further discussions would be required to approve the draft that would end India’s 34-year-old isolation in the civil nuclear commerce.

While most of the members were in favour of lifting the current ban that prevents nuclear commerce between the NSG and a non-signatory of the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT), like India, some NSG members had insisted that it should not be lifted unless New Delhi formally says no to further nuclear tests.