Vienna - The United States convinced nuclear-exporting
countries to approve trade with India on Saturday, leaving the US
Congress just enough time before the presidential elections to ratify
the 2005 bilateral nuclear agreement with New Delhi.
At the end of a three-day meeting in Vienna of the Nuclear
Suppliers Group (NSG), which sets nuclear export rules, diplomats said
they reached consensus on an export waiver for India.
It will now be able to access global nuclear markets for its
growing atomic energy programme, despite the fact that it has not
signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The trade waiver is an essential part of Washington's 2005 nuclear
deal with New Delhi, which is seen as as a cornerstone for improving
strategic relations.
The administration of President George W Bush was under pressure to
find NSG consensus this week, as there is little time for Congress in
Washington to approve the bilateral agreement before it goes into
recess in late September or early October.
India's declaration on Friday about its commitments to nuclear non-
proliferation was key to making a decision possible, diplomats said.
A source close to the talks said the draft trade exemption now
includes a direct reference a statement by Indian Foreign Minister
Pranak Mukerjee, in which he said his country was committed to a
moratorium on nuclear weapons testing.
Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and
Switzerland were the most vocal of the 45 NSG members in insisting
that the trade exemption should take the possibility of an Indian
nuclear weapons test into consideration.
According to participants of the meeting the United States
administration talked to critical nuclear-exporting countries as well
as China on the highest political level in order to make a decision
possible on Saturday.
Apart from the US, countries such as France and Russia are hoping
to win lucrative nuclear contracts with India, which plans to build at
least eight new nuclear reactors until 2012.
If US vendors won two of these contracts, it would create 3,000 to
5,000 new domestic jobs, according to a letter by the US State
Department to the Foreign Affairs committee of the House of
Representatives.
The Nuclear Suppliers Group was formed in reaction to India's first
atomic weapons test in 1974, which it conducted using foreign nuclear
technology.
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