One reason that the United States has advanced as a justification for an exemption for India from the NSG guidelines is that India will be a contributing partner in the non-proliferation regime, once it accepts safeguards. When India insists that the deal is purely for energy and not for assisting in non-proliferation even by implication, the NSG members become perplexed and suspicious
The Bharatiya Janata Party has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his government to tender an apology to the nation and explain why it mislead the country on the nuclear deal.
"The speculation doing the rounds in media regarding China's protest over NSG membership to India is not true," he said on the sidelines of a function at Balia in Uttar Pradesh.
The Finland government will open a consulate in Mumbai and plans to pursue negotiations on free trade between the two countries
India must re-negotiate its nuclear deal with the US in order to save its strategic interests, former national security adviser Brajesh Mishra said Tuesday night.
Ried said the issue had already been discussed between Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Pervez Musharraf when they met in New York last month on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
The PM will also ask Howard to sell uranium to India.
They met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Thursday.
Having obtained a waiver at the Nuclear Suppliers' Group and with South Africa and Brazil already welcoming India's acceptance of the relevant guidelines regulating the issue, India is exploring the possibility of accessing uranium from South Africa.
There was speculation that India might sign a civil nuclear pact with Russia in its attempt to garner support in the Nuclear Suppliers Group, of which Russia is an important member.
It said the whole accord only contributed to the policy with New Delhi making a number of commitments to that effect.
A closed-door meeting of the NSG has been convened by the US on the sidelines of the 51st general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
During the negotiations, which began on September 4, both the proponents and sceptics stuck to their positions but finally reached common ground on Saturday after American prodding and deft diplomacy by New Delhi.
China's official media on Tuesday went public over India's Nuclear Suppliers Group bid for the first time, saying New Delhi's membership of the elite club will not only touch a "raw nerve" in Pakistan and increase a nuclear arms race in the region but also "jeopardise" China's national interests.
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Washington, DC-based Arms Control Association believes India's expectation of a 'clean exemption' at the Nuclear Suppliers Group meeting scheduled for August 21 is "a fantasy".
At a press briefing at Washington DC's National Press Club on the eve of the IAEA board of governors meeting, nonproliferation experts called on the NSG not to reach a consensus on the accord, since it was 'seriously flawed and would undermine the professed objectives of the NSG'
Now that the United Progressive Alliance coalition has nine months in office, it must be transparent and accountable to those who pay and elect it to serve the people of India. A single mis-step on the 123 could irreparably damage rather than advance India's national interest
An authoritative and well-connected strategic affairs journal in China has come out with a prompt independent comment on the progress in the N-deal.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who arrived in Japan on Monday to attend the G-8 summit, met UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to discuss various issues listed on the summit's agenda, including the climate change which tops it.
Finland is holding discussions with other European Union countries to evolve a common position on the issue of NSG guidelines.
'It will be a very positive step,' said Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Garh Store.
The Indo-US civil nuclear deal may face questions from China in the Nuclear Suppliers Group, former American deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbott said in New Delhi.
Senators Joseph Biden, John Kerry and Chuck Hagel, who met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Wedensday, said if the deal is not taken up in the US Congress by June and the process completed during the tenure of President George W Bush, any new US administration will renegotiate the deal.
The move will boost India's efforts to purchase Predator drones from the US and export its high-tech missiles to friendly nations.
The 123 agreement is mired in opposition in Indian Parliament, but analysts warned on Wednesday that if the deal took off again, the Rudd government's reversal on uranium sales could have 'quite serious' ramifications for Australia-India relations.
He said while Indian participation in the Sakhalin-1 project demonstrated the joint capabilities and mutuality of interests, India was fully prepared with its technical and financial resources to expand its presence in the Russian energy sector.
The attack comes as a shot in the arm for lawmakers to vote the 123 Agreement down when it ultimately comes up for a vote in Congress
They said that India and the US should put on a fast track the negotiations with the Nuclear Suppliers' Group and the International Atomic Energy Agency and pave the way for signing the pact.
Brazil, a prominent member of Nuclear Suppliers Group, on Monday agreed on a civil nuclear cooperation with India as the two countries initiated a strategic dialogue to bolster ties aimed at taking bilateral trade up to $10 billion by 2010, from the
'If the CPI-M cannot mend relations with Dr Manmohan Singh, it may find that Congress boss Sonia Gandhi is still willing to talk.'
"We have made the red lines clear ... We might have to backout if the NSG countries do not agree," M R Srinivasan, member of the Atomic Energy Commission, told PTI.
US Ambassador to India David C Mulford, who is in Vienna for meetings on the sidelines of the two-day NSG meeting considering India's case ending Friday, told NDTV that Washington thinks that eventually a consensus would be arrived at on the issue, but it does not not know how quickly.
In a significant announcement during United States President Barack Obama's visit, the US on Saturday said it will support India's full membership in the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group and three other multilateral export control regimes.
Armed with a waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers' Group India is now scouting for uranium from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Niger to fuel its atomic power plants which are running at half their installed capacity.
Burns noted that the United States has left behind a draft proposal for the conclusion of the so-called 123 Agreement and is keen on pushing the process on an expedited fashion.
Ahead of the meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, India has said it will not accept the waiver from the 45-nation grouping if the 'red lines' set by it are crossed. National Security Adviser M K Narayanan made it clear that inclusion of any clause on testing, periodic review or denial of enrichment and reprocessing technology in the text of the NSG waiver would be unacceptable and hoped a way around these issues would be found through diplomatic efforts.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday held discussions with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and National Security Adviser M K Narayanan on the deliberations in the Nuclear Suppliers Group where a consensus on a waiver for India is still elusive.
The United States on Tuesday asked India not to talk about an unconditional waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group as it was 'provocative' ahead of the meeting of the 45-nation group.Ambassador to India David Mulford said usage of the term 'unconditional' was 'over simplification' of issues considering that the issue related to the NSG. He noted that the US was seeking 'clean exemption' from NSG and was not using the word unconditional because there are 'many moving parts'.
India could expect the support of Japan at the upcoming Nuclear Suppliers Group meeting, with a senior official of the country saying that Tokyo understands New Delhi's energy needs and would adopt an approach that strengthens the non-proliferation regime.Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kazuo Kodama noted that Tokyo had gone with consensus at the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors meeting on India-specific safeguards despite having reservations.
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