This says that once consultations are on, supplier countries will not do anything to “prejudice” the process. In other words, they may take appropriate action which could even include suspending the transfer of Trigger List items — sensitive technology that could be used in the weapons programme — during this period. And if a violation is confirmed upon consultation, Paragraph 16 is clear that countries will terminate supplies.

Sources said this provision is similar to what is agreed in the 123 agreement, where consultations take place before termination. US diplomats have argued in the NSG that this provision is an effective response built into the exemption in case India were to detonate a device.

After the first session, delegations from the six “sceptic” countries held a meeting over lunch after US stepped up efforts to outflank them.

The relatively reduced scepticism by the end of the day was backed by calls to not prolong this decision. While the NSG started its meeting, sources said, New Delhi was burning the phone lines. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and National Security Advisor M K Narayanan have been speaking to their counterparts in the six “holdout” countries asking them not to block a consensus.

The group held a three-hour session in the forenoon and then reconvened for an hour in the evening. “US believes firmly that the steps we are considering for India will strengthen the non-proliferation regime and will help to welcome one of the world’s largest economies and biggest democracies more fully into the global fold. I believe they are making steady progress in this process and we will continue to make progress,” said US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns who is heading the US delegation here.

... contd.