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Pranab: we will not accept any prescriptive terms

Changes in NSG waiver draft to be studied

On Board a Special Aircraft: As Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon headed for Washington to discuss amendments to the draft Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG) waiver, India on Saturday made it clear that it would not accept any “prescriptive conditionalities” attached to the exemption.

A day after the 45-nation NSG ended the two-day meeting in Vienna inconclusively to enable amendments to the draft as sought by some countries, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said India would see what kinds of changes were proposed to be made in the text of the waiver.

“We have to see what kinds of amendments come. Then only we can decide. But we cannot accept prescriptive conditionalities,” Mr. Mukherjee, who is accompanying President Pratibha Patil on her two-day visit to West Bengal, told PTI.

He was asked about the government’s future course of action in the face of reservations expressed by some countries which could lead to a re-wording of the draft waiver before it is presented again before the NSG at the next meeting expected on September 4-5.

Mr. Mukherjee said he was briefed by Mr. Menon about the developments during the NSG meeting in Vienna.

His comments came as Mr. Menon, changing his itinerary, headed for Washington to hold discussions with the U.S. over the amendments proposed by some NSG members.

During the NSG meeting, some members raised non-proliferation issues and questioned why India should be given the exemption as it was not a signatory to the NPT.

Several of them wanted the draft waiver, moved by the U.S., to be amended to ensure a language that will satisfy the non-proliferation lobbies.

After the NSG deliberations, Mr. Menon described the meet as “constructive and useful” and said India looked forward to working with the grouping. “We met a lot of individual delegates of NSG member countries and had an opportunity to brief them on Thursday,” he said.

Mr. Menon said the exemption to NSG guidelines for nuclear trade would help civil nuclear cooperation and “is a necessary step for cooperation between India and the NSG.”

Sources said differences between India and NSG countries had been narrowed down in a short span of time and New Delhi expected them to shrink further before the next meeting of the grouping. — PTI

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