Nuclear exporters need another meeting on India trade (Roundup)

Aug 22, 2008, 15:03 GMT

Vienna - Nuclear-exporting countries did not find a consensus on allowing trade with India during a meeting that ended Friday in Vienna and will meet again in early September for a new round of talks, diplomats said.

The decision by the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) was delayed, as several member countries want to put conditions on the United States' proposal for a trade exemption and there is pressure on the US, which has proposed the exception, to introduce changes to its proposal.

'Participating governments exchanged views in a constructive manner and agreed to meet again in the near future to continue their deliberations,' the NSG, which sets international export control standards, said in a short statement.

Participants at the meeting said the next meeting would be held on September 4 and 5.

India has so far been insisting on what its officials call 'a clean exemption.'

'There is no question of India accepting any conditions or any new provision in the draft,' Indian sources were quoted by Indian news agency IANS as saying earlier Friday from Vienna.

But the US indicated there might be amendments to its draft.

'There may be changes in the text. But we will not allow any changes that will impede the process or block cooperation,' US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher was quoted as saying in an interview with Indian broadcaster NDTV in Mumbai.

Green-lighting exports for India's growing nuclear power programme is part of Washington's 2005 nuclear deal with New Delhi, which the US administration wants Congress to ratify before the presidential elections.

Under this deal, India has already agreed to a number of measures, such as separating its nuclear bomb programme from its energy sector, and allowing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect civilian reactors.

According to participants of the Nuclear Suppliers Group meeting, members are calling for a provision in the trade exemption that would halt India's status as a recipient nation, or to put it under review, if India tested another atom bomb.

The Nuclear Suppliers Group was formed in reaction to an Indian bomb test in 1974, which it had built using imported reactor technology.

The US and other NSG members have to decide on a trade waiver before exporting to India because current rules prevent them from supplying countries that have not signed the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty.

Countries including Austria, Ireland, Switzerland and Norway are among the NSG members that are active in pushing for stricter conditions before green-lighting exports of nuclear material and technology to India.