Click to play videoNew Delhi: The word from Vienna is that differences over the waiver have narrowed, but there will be changes to the draft to reflect non-proliferation concerns of certain countries.
Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has warned that India will not be pushed beyond what is in the draft waiver.
“We have to see what kind of amendments come. Then only we can decide. But we cannot accept prescriptive conditionalities,” he said.
As the Nuclear Suppliers Group takes a breather after three days of debate over a waiver for India, Foreign Secretary Menon will be in Washington to fine tune strategy with nuclear envoy William Burns.
The strategy has to focus on taking on the likely demands by some NSG members, which includes intrusive inspections of Indian civilian nuclear sites, cancellation of any waiver if India tests bombs again and ban on transfer of enrichment and reprocessing technologies.
However, US says, it would work with India to get a new draft in place. Assistant Secretary Boucher has made clear that no changes would be allowed that could see the collapse of negotiations with India.
Meanwhile, assuming that the NSG waiver comes through, the nuclear deal would go to the US Congress on September 8. But the session ends on the September 26, leaving insufficient time for Congress to debate and vote on the deal, which leaves the deal for December and it's not clear if a lame duck session will be held at all.
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