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India will not accept conditions to clinch US nuclear deal: report
New Delhi (AFP) Aug 23, 2008 India will not accept any new conditions to win approval from nuclear supplier nations for lifting a decades-old embargo on nuclear trade with New Delhi, a report said Saturday. The statement by Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee came a day after nuclear supplier nations ended a two-day meeting in Vienna without reaching agreement on lifting the 34-year-old embargo on nuclear trade with India. The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), which controls the export and sale of nuclear technology worldwide, convened for two days "to discuss a US draft proposal on a statement on civil nuclear cooperation with India." "We cannot accept prescriptive conditionalities," Mukherjee told the Press Trust of India as Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon headed for Washington to discuss amendments to the draft NSG waiver. Diplomats who attended the discussions of the highly secretive 45-member group signalled that the US-India deal had run into stiff resistance among member states, with some setting conditions for giving approval. Menon, however, described the meeting as "constructive and useful." The United States wants a special waiver of NSG rules for India, which refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), allowing Washington and New Delhi to cooperate in the civilian nuclear field. But a number of countries have openly expressed reservations about the 2005 agreement between the United States and India. The proposed waiver "would blow a hole in the nuclear non-proliferation system," Daryl Kimball, non-proliferation expert and executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, told AFP on Friday. Under NSG rules, all nuclear trade with India is banned because it refuses to sign the NPT, developed atomic bombs in secret and conducted its first nuclear test in 1974. The United States argues the new deal would bring India into the NPT fold after 34 years of isolation and help combat global warming by allowing the world's largest democracy to develop low-polluting nuclear energy. Critics argue the deal undermines international non-proliferation efforts by providing US nuclear technology to a non-NPT state. They accuse nuclear states supporting the deal of ignoring proliferation dangers in pursuit of commercial and political gains. The deal must clear three major hurdles before it can come into effect. The first came earlier this month when the International Atomic Energy Agency approved an India-specific safeguards agreement. The NSG represents the next obstacle before the deal must finally be approved by the US Congress. Unanimous approval is required from the group. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Share This Article With Planet Earth
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India nuclear deal could trigger arms race: US lawmakers
Washington (AFP) Aug 20, 2008A nuclear energy deal between the United States and India could fuel an arms race with Pakistan unless it is amended to ensure New Delhi is banned from producing new weapons-grade material and from conducting nuclear test explosions, two US lawmakers said Wednesday. |
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