Russia on Friday assured that India would continue to enjoy the waiver it received in 2008 from the Nuclear Suppliers Group's export ban and Moscow wants New Delhi's full participation in the 45-nation grouping that regulates global atomic commerce.
Russia's assurance came after India objected to the new guidelines adopted in June by the NSG on the export of nuclear enrichment and reprocessing equipment which include membership in the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty as a condition for supply.
At its plenary session in Holland's Noordwijk on June 20-24, NSG had voted against the supply of nuclear enrichment and reprocessing technology to the countries, which have not signed the NPT. The decision was widely seen as a blow to the 'clean waiver' granted to India in 2008.
"Adopted in 2011, the NSG Plenary decision to strengthen the monitoring of 'sensitive' nuclear export does not affect the decision of the Group of September 2008 to unfreeze the peaceful nuclear cooperation with India," Russian Foreign Ministry's spokesman Alexander Lukashevich was quoted as saying by the official ITAR-TASS news agency. He declared that Russia continues to advocate for full participation of India in the 45-member NSG and is ready to back such a decision.
Lukashevich said the NSG's Noordwijk plenary "marked the beginning of substantive discussions on possible ways to connect New Delhi to the nuclear export control regime."
"We have repeatedly raised the issue of establishing regular contacts between the NSG and India and creating a mechanism to allow New Delhi to participate in the development of export control norms in the nuclear field," he said.
"In Noordwijk, we reaffirmed our strong commitment and willingness to ensure full participation of India in NSG," he added.
Expressing satisfaction at the development of Indo-Russian civil nuclear cooperation as an 'important supporting element' of bilateral strategic partnership, Lukashevich said Moscow hopes that ties in nuclear energy will further expand and strengthen in accordance with Russian laws and in strict compliance of their international obligations by both the parties.
"All necessary arrangements are fixed in the agreement of March 12, 2010 between the governments of our countries on cooperation in the field of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, as well as in a joint statement, which leaders of our countries adopted in December 2010," he said.
