For the first time, India has presented its case before the Nuclear Suppliers Group in Vienna seeking exemption from NSG guidelines to enable full civilian nuclear cooperation with all its members.

This was the first time NSG members agreed to invite India for a presentation on Thursday on the margins of its Consultative Committee meeting.

This happened as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was in Helsinki trying to garner support from Finland, which along with other Scandinavian countries, has not yet favoured the nuclear deal. That India got its opportunity in Vienna clearly shows PM’s recent visits to Brazil, South Africa and now Finland have made their impact on getting the NSG to at least hear New Delhi’s case.

While it is clear that the NSG will decide only after the US Congress has passed the Indo-US civil nuclear cooperation Bill, the support on Capitol Hill to the deal has also had a resonance with the 45-member NSG divided until not so long ago on even inviting India to make a formal presentation.

There was talk of India being allowed to make its case at the NSG plenary meet at Brasilia in June, but this fell through due to differences among members.

It’s learnt that the presentation took place in the IAEA premises with over 200 delegates from different NSG countries present. The meeting, slotted for two hours, lasted twice as long with countries largely seeking clarifications instead of expressing their outright opposition.

The Indian delegation was led by India’s envoy in Vienna Sheel Kant Sharma with Joint Secretary in-charge of US S. Jaishankar making the presentation.

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