The United States has asked China to clarify details of its agreement with Pakistan to supply two nuclear power plants to the latter.
The Biden administration has reaffirmed its commitment to support India's permanent membership in a reformed UN Security Council and New Delhi's entry to the Nuclear Suppliers' Group.
The UPA government on Friday insisted that the country's "sovereign" interests, including in strategic nuclear field, were protected in the IAEA safeguards agreement and expressed confidence about getting an exemption from the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
The United States on Thursday said it "strongly and vehemently" supports the Nuclear Suppliers Group clean waiver for India and hoped that the civil nuclear deal between the two countries will continue to move in a positive direction.
Ahead of next week's crucial meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, a top Swiss lawmaker has said his government will 'most likely' support a waiver for India at the 45-nation grouping."The Indo-US nuclear deal is important for India's energy security and I think the Swiss government will most likely support the waiver for New Delhi at the NSG meet," Speaker of the Upper House of Swiss Parliament Christoffel Brandil told PTI.
India Inc expects huge business opportunities to open up with the Nuclear Supplier's Group sanctioning an India specific waiver on Saturday.
While denying, along with the non-proliferation lobby in the United States, that it conspired to deliberately release this correspondence on the eve of the NSG meeting to scuttle the US-India deal as administration and diplomatic sources had contended, Berman's office and Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, which has been in the forefront of opposing the agreement, said the fault lay with the Bush administration and the Manmohan Singh government
As per the Indo-US deal, the NSG is required to adjust its guidelines to allow the international community to have civil nuclear cooperation with India.
India has received a positive response from the Non-Aligned Movement countries, which are members of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group on the Indo-US nuclear deal after it briefed them on the safeguards agreement, which the global nuclear watchdog will consider on Friday.
Former foreign secretary Shyam Saran says he is "optimistic" of the nuclear deal being cleared at the Nuclear Suppliers Group meeting. Saran -- the prime minister's special envoy on climate change and the India-US nuclear civilian agreement -- also confirmed that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will attend the G-8 summit in Tokyo later this week.
After a day-long meeting on Thursday, delegates to the 45-member nuclear cartel expressed optimism over a consensus to end the country's three-decade long nuclear isolation by Friday. "We are close to a consensus. There may be a statement for the Press on Friday," a western diplomat, who refused to be identified either by name or country, said after the delegates considered a revised US draft waiver at the conclusion of 2nd session of the opening day of the two-day meeeting.
Asking the Indian government to take a "courageous" decision on the civil nuclear deal considering the "short timelines", the Bush administration has cautioned it against attempting such an arrangement with other nations ignoring the United States..
'We are relying on the understanding of other partners in this effort. We are asking people to look closely and quickly in the Nuclear Suppliers Group, to move expeditiously, and we hope that will happen, and then we'll go to the US Congress,' Boucher was quoted as saying last week in Japan, a transcript of which has been released in Washington.
Cooperation in civilian nuclear energy, defence, climate change and economic linkages is high on agenda of talks between India and France during French President Nicolas Sarkozy's visit to India on January 25-26, informed sources said on Monday.
India has received the first consignment of 60 tonnes of uranium from France for use as fuel to power its nuclear reactors following clearance by the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group
Russia has indicated its willingness to back United States' amendments to Nuclear Suppliers Group guidelines.
During Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's wide-ranging talks with his Italian counterpart Romano Prodi in Delhi, the two sides expressed their commitment to work towards establishing a strategic partnership.
India will have to request the NSG to relax its restrictions on the transfer of nuclear technology and fuel.
Affirming its commitment to work with India in securing a "clean" waiver from the NSG, the US on Monday said the two countries will "continue our vigorous joint advocacy", including at the highest levels, for it ahead of the grouping's next meeting on September 4.
Non-proliferation specialists and non-government organisations have asked the foreign ministers of the Nuclear Suppliers Group to reject the US proposal to exempt India from long-standing global nuclear trade standards.
Nuclear power is seeing a renaissance. Power-starved India, which has the largest number of reactors under construction, is at the forefront of this revival of interest in nuclear power.
More than nuclear power, India stands to gain access to a wide range of dual-use goods and technologies, from which it was barred, as a result of the waiver by the 45-country Nuclear Suppliers' Group.
This comes at a time the domestic industry is gearing up to enter the nuclear arena. On Monday, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industries set up a lobby group comprising 40 Indian companies, including Jindal Power and Tata Power, to promote private participation in nuclear power generation.
US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W Patterson has said it was not possible for the United States to extend any cooperation to the latter in nuclear energy sector as the issue involved a lot of legislation.
Despite intense lobbying, it is unlikely that the Nuclear Suppliers Group will approve an India-specific draft waiver to conduct nuclear trade with its members during a two-day meet scheduled to begin on Wednesday, a prominent arms-control think-tank opposed to the India-United States nuclear deal has said."The US and India are certainly using strong-arms tactics,"said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association.
The Nuclear Suppliers Group finally gave its nod to the India-specific waiver on Saturday.The decision came after the NSG held fresh rounds of unscheduled discussions on grant of a waiver for India, after marathon parleys on Friday failed to produce a consensus, with China joining a clutch of countries having reservations over the move.Diplomats from 45 countries constituting the nuclear cartel had been engaged in hectic and tough negotiations.
Even before the India-United States civilian nuclear agreement gets a nod from the Nuclear Supplier's Group, a hint of the US Congressional opposition has surfaced, in the form of a salvo fired by Congressman Howard Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.Berman, a California Democrat, was the author of several 'killer amendments' to the enabling Hyde Act when it was debated and voted on the floor in 2006, all of which were defeated.
Several NSG countries like Britain, France and Russia besides the US have expressed their approval of the deal but some of its members, particularly the Scandinavian nations, have reservations.
The Australian government has already made it clear that it will reverse a decision by the previous John Howard administration to sell uranium to India as New Delhi is not a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. 'But the Bush administration is expected to seek a promise from Australia that it will not vote against the Indian agreement in the NSG, in which it is one of 45 member States.
Cyprus and India also finalised an agreement on combating terrorism, illicit drug trafficking and organised crimes.
Brazil and South Africa, key members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, on Tuesday decided to explore ways for cooperation with India in civil nuclear field through "acceptable forward-looking approaches."
"What is required is to convince the NSG of the non-proliferation benefits of the deal," Stratford, director at the Office of Nuclear Energy Affairs in the US State Department, said.
The Netherlands, a key member of the Nuclear Suppliers' Group, has said that the export of nuclear goods for peaceful purposes to India was in conformity with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The country has also expressed its readiness to consider any proposal in this regard. However, Netherlands said that it was awaiting the finalisation of the agreement between India and the IAEA and it will formulate its final position after careful analysis of the pact.
He was responding to a query on NSG guidelines that restrict the export of reactors by members of the grouping, including the US, France, Russia, Australia and Japan.
China on Tuersday said it will first find a solution that applies to all non-NPT countries seeking entry into NSG and will then discuss India's application, a day after the two country's held talks over India's bid for membership of the elite grouping.
The Obama administration is in talks with Pakistan on a range of issues including limiting and controlling Islamabad's weapons programme, according to a media report.
The influential Indian-American community has swung back to action to push the N-deal ahead.
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