While fewer countries countered India at the briefing that Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon made to NSG countries before the plenary went in for its closed-door meeting in Vienna this afternoon, sources said, there was pressure building up to “tighten” the draft a bit more.
In this context, Washington has still kept open the possibility of another meeting in early September.
Despite reservations, almost all NSG members spoke in favour of India being given an exemption but some of them felt that the draft circulated by the US fell short on certain counts. Key among them was a need to make it clear that cooperation would end in case India conducted a nuclear test in the future and a reference to CTBT.
This point, sources said, was flagged off even before the meeting by New Zealand which felt that US should include conditions on testing given that the same is also mentioned in the Hyde Act. In fact, New Zealand and to some extent, Ireland, felt that the conditions in the Hyde Act should act as a template of sorts for the NSG as well.
While these countries were somewhat “extreme” in their scepticism, there are countries like Canada which were keen on pushing for a review or monitoring mechanism for India. On this count, sources said, suggestions were mooted to have a closer inspection regime.
Though “milder” in their scepticism as they do not want to annoy India, countries like Canada, Japan and even Australia seemed to indicate that they would be more comfortable with a tighter exemption note. For instance, some of them were keen to also place a prohibition on enrichment and reprocessing technology.
On this issue, sources said, the concerns were largely commercial as some of them felt that Russia and France could use E&R technologies to “sweeten” their commercial prospects with India while others may not be able to do so for domestic compulsions.
... contd.
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