NSG should pass US draft without change: India

NEW DELHI: The government on Sunday said that it expected the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to grant an exemption without any change to the draft circulated to its members by the US. The NSG is meeting in Vienna on Thursday to discuss the waiver for India.

���We have done everything that had to be done and now we expect the NSG exemption without any change to the draft that was circulated to them recently,��� said Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar.

Reacting to a letter written by non-proliferation experts and NGOs asking the NSG to reject the US proposal to exempt India from long-standing global nuclear trade standards, Mr Kakodkar said: ���We expect the process to move consistent with the July 18, 2005, understanding and any change in their (NSG) position is problematic.���

Last week, 150 non-proliferation experts and NGOs from around two dozen countries asked foreign ministers of the NSG to reject the US proposal to exempt India from long-standing global nuclear trade standards. In a letter the foreign ministers of NSG member states, the experts urged the cartel that controls world nuclear trade to avoid a ���non-proliferation disaster��� by rejecting a US proposal to give India a waiver from its rules. ���India���s commitments under the current terms of the proposed arrangement do not justify making far-reaching exceptions to international non-proliferation rules and norms,��� wrote the critics going by the name of ���Abolition 2000 US-India Deal Working Group���.

���Before India is granted a waiver from the NSG���s full-scope safeguards standard, it should join the other original nuclear weapon states by declaring it has stopped fissile material production for weapons purposes and transform its nuclear test moratorium into a meaningful, legally-binding commitment,��� the letter said.

The appeal was part of a global NGO campaign to influence governments��� views about the controversial nuclear trade proposal, according to Washington based Arms Control Association spearheading the group with Tokyo-based Citizens��� Nuclear Information Center.