Click to play videoNew Delhi/Vienna: A US push to lift a global ban on nuclear commerce with India stalled on Friday, when a revised proposal failed to win over Nuclear Supplier Group (NSG) member countries, because it did not bind India to refrain from conducting nuclear bomb tests, diplomats said.
The 45 member countries of the NSG will resume their meeting on Saturday at 1430 Hours IST in an effort to seek consensus on a "clean waiver," ending India’s 34-year-long nuclear isolation.
US negotiators have been engaging with the diplomats of the smaller countries who are opposed to the NSG waiver for India. The waiver document has already been through two sets of changes.
"You are probably aware that the Indian government has released a significant statement today with respect to India's non proliferation commitments. I report that statement has made a substantial impact on the governments of the NSG and that has facilitated the progress that we achieved today," US Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security John Rood said.
He added that the US remains committed to reaching consensus in Vienna at the NSG to allow for nuclear trade with India.
"This is an important matter. This is a serious subject that is given a very serious discussion by our colleagues and I remain optimistic that we can achieve our objective to reach a consensus here," Rood said.
Six countries had raised objections at the start of the meeting on Thursday, but by the end of round two, which concluded at 0200 Hours IST on Saturday, only two holdouts — Austria and Ireland — remained unconvinced. They rejected the amended language, presented to them individually by US officials, describing it as "inadequate."
The two countries said India must categorically commit to refrain from nuclear tests and the document must spell out what kind of "automatic reprisal" would follow in the event of transgression.
Austrian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Peter Launsky told CNN-IBN that Austria was positive about giving India the waiver, but negotiations could take more time.
"Austria understands the importance of the nuclear deal for India. Austria appreciates significance of the fact that India is able to meet her energy needs. The Ministry of External Affairs said that the ongoing efforts should strengthen international non-proliferation," he said.
Launsky added that the objective of Austria going to the NSG meeting is that tesult should reflect a net gain for the international security.
"The participants have shown a constructive spirit. Efforts are on to include some auxiliary measures that would compliment existing draft and thus net gain for international security. There are ways and means of extending the limit of the talks by few hours," he said.
Ruling out any substantive changes, India has rejected any attempt to add a clause on testing to the waiver document. However, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday that India was committed to non-proliferation and a unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing went a long way in converting sceptic countries over to its side.
Diplomats are working late in Vienna to make final changes to the draft, acceptable to all sides.
Even though the negotiations failed to make headway, sources say the fact that the talks haven’t broken down indicate that all the 45 NSG nations hope to evolve a consensus soon.
According to the NSG rules, the waiver must be approved unanimously for it to be adopted.
Weekend Edition with Rajdeep Sardesai
Is the Indo-US nuclear deal India's biggest foreign policy initiative since the 1971 Bangladesh war?
(With agency inputs)
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