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NSG -India Housekeeping Sep 6

by Paul

Nothing on the NSG website about the exemption yet, but this is what they said after the last meeting in August.

[ACA has the August and more recent versions of the proposed waiver language. They also have the 2006 version.]

So far, it seems that India got a fairly clean exemption.

Anil Kakodkar, head of India’s DAE, said that the final NSG text doesn’t spell out consequences for New Delhi if it tests nuclear weapons:

“There is no explicit mention of nuclear testing (in the NSG waiver),” he told reporters, making it clear that the exemption granted to India by the 45-nation cartel met all the requirements of the Department of Atomic Energy.

He also seemed to confirm something I said before – that India hasn’t made any new commitments on nuclear testing:

“We have made no legal commitment (on nuclear tests),” Kakodkar said, underlining that India has already made a unilateral, voluntary moratorium on conducting atomic tests.

Reuters seems to back Kakodkar’s statement, saying that the “final draft cited only the need for a special NSG meeting if India reneged on its commitments.”

At least one person complained that this is kinda weak:

“The problem here is that the NSG works only on the basis of consensus. So if India did another test the follow-up meeting could be reduced to a talkshop by any one member like the Americans,” said another diplomat.

“It’s not clear we could take action as a group.”

Update: Siddharth Varadarajan seems to confirm the above:

There are no post-conditions providing for automatic termination of supply if some member state feels India is not living up to its non-proliferation commitments. The NSG always has the right to consult and convene in case members feel this has happened but a decision to cut off supplies will have to be adopted by consensus. There are no separate restrictions on enrichment and reprocessing technology exports.

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