As elections loom, US clinches India nuclear trade waiver (Roundup)

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.