India would face NGO double standards on NSG meet

http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/1997/india-nsg-exemption-in-danger mentions the author to create the deal with conditions. There are no logical arguments. Some NGOs will be paid to raise this issue. Thankfully we see a russia's georgia war that will allow the NSG to pass india specific deal easily.



NEW DELHI: The battle for India's nuclear exemption is likely to focus on access to enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) technology and equipment and to avoid a "testing" condition included in the final waiver document by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) when it meets on August 21-22 at Vienna.

As the nuclear deal enters its final lap at the NSG, the opposition to India's case is also getting stronger. In fact, the meeting next week is expected to generate a lot of heat and noise against India and the deal, and it's not only the non-proliferation brigade that will oppose giving India a full nuclear waiver.

There has been an informal agreement that the India decision may have to be taken at another plenary tentatively scheduled for early September. But competing for attention with the nuclear deal is the Russia-Georgia crisis. US undersecretary William Burns, scheduled to arrive here for NSG talks on Monday, cancelled his visit at the last moment. As the US' former envoy to Russia, he is involved in resolving the crisis there.

Of all the "conditions" that NSG countries may try to impose, India will "strongly" oppose any bar on ENR technology and equipment. This, unfortunately, is one issue where almost all NSG member countries are on the same page. While the known objectionists — Austria, Ireland, Sweden, Netherlands and New Zealand — are expected to block India's demand for access to ENR, even Russia, an old friend and a potentially large nuclear supplier to India, has reportedly expressed reservations to transferring ENR technology to India.

Indian officials, particularly the DAE, has made it clear to their US counterparts that any language formulation that explicitly bars India from accessing such technology would be unacceptable. Even if there is no consensus on this at present, India would like the window to be kept open in one of several ways — either letting sovereign nations make sovereign choices on the matter or, keeping the issue open for a later decision. IAEA too has kept the window open for a future ENR pact, as was clarified in the cover note circulated to its members along with the draft agreement, saying India would have to negotiate another agreement for an enrichment plant.

The Indian insistence on ENR technology predates the NSG battle and was a big deal during the 123 negotiations with the US. The US, which has the most stringent laws on transferring ENR technology, has denied it to every country in the world, except Australia, and that too because, in this field, Australia is more evolved than the US. India possesses enrichment and reprocessing technology, and it has been completely indigenously developed, the brainchild of Dr Homi Sethna. But despite having both enrichment and reprocessing plants, India has not been able to scale up the technology to commercial levels.