Prime Minister Narendra Modi expected to push for India's NSG membership

NEW DELHI:NEW DELHI: India’s application to become a member of the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and subsequent diplomatic initiative launched at the highest level manifested through the visits beginning on Saturday are aimed at increasing quota of clean energy mix in the country’s power generation as well as prepare India to become an exporter of nuclear energy.

“Joining NSG is key India’s quest to achieve clean energy. 40% of India’s power generation by 2030 will be by non-fossil fuel. Nuclear energy will be key component of that. And to achieve this India needs predictable nuclear environment globally and to have access to technology,” Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar told media on the eve of PM’s five-nation tour.

During his meetings in USA, Switzerland and Mexico, India’s membership at NSG ahead of group’s plenary meeting at Seoul on June 23-24 will be brought up by Narendra Modi.

All three are key members of NSG.



India has formally applied for NSG membership in mid-May and since then has stepped up diplomatic initiatives including phone calls and highlevel visits to lobby for membership in the group which granted it a clean waiver in 2008.

The foreign secretary said India has been eyeing membership of the premier group for many years and that it has made “lot of progress” on that.

“I think we have made lot of progress and that has led us to formally apply for the NSG membership some days ago. We are engaged with all NSG members regarding this issue and Switzerland is definitely an important member and I would expect it to come up,” he said.

Pointing out that large number of reactors will be set up in India in the next 15 years, Jaishankar said both international and domestic players will be play important role in this process. “India is also looking to emerge as exporters of nuclear energy... India has a solid record in nuclear non-proliferation.”

Even as NSG members like China and Mexico are opposed to nonnuclear proliferation treaty (NPT) signatory like India, Jaishankar, who had earlier played a key role in putting Indo-US nuclear deal in place, explained that NSG membership and NPT are to be treated as two separate issues.

Incidentally, the NSG was founded in response to India’s maiden nuclear test in May 1974. As of 2014, the NSG has 48 members.

Four out of five UN Security Council member states minus China have supported India’s NSG membership.

The NSG is concerned with reducing nuclear proliferation by controlling the export and retransfer of materials that may be applicable to nuclear weapon development and by improving safeguards and protection on existing materials.