The next few weeks are bound to see an intensive international campaign by the non-proliferation activists and liberal internationalists across the Atlantic to destroy the initiative, by simply delaying it.

India, in contrast, will need a lot more than broad support from the international community. It must have strong political commitments from world leaders for quick, decisive and unconditional endorsement of the civil nuclear initiative at the IAEA and the NSG.

There is no better place to mount India’s diplomatic effort than Hokkaido where leaders from many important countries have gathered for the annual G8 summit. Also present are the representatives of the five developing countries that have been regularly invited for interaction with the G8 in recent years. These are China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico. For this year’s Hokkaido summit, the Japanese hosts have also invited three important Asian countries — Indonesia, South Korea and Australia. On top of all this, Tokyo has also set up a special G8 outreach to African leaders from Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania.

Building on the solid support from Russia, France and Great Britain for the Indo-US civil nuclear initiative, the prime minister will have to realise a number of important goals. He must encourage the Chinese president Hu Jintao to end Beijing’s ambiguity about India’s civil nuclear initiative and turn the silence of his Japanese hosts into active support. Manmohan Singh will also have his work cut out in overcoming the residual nuclear scepticism among the European powers.

... contd.