The move for a clean exemption for India by the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group has drawn concerns from some members which have asked Washington to consider amendments to the draft it has circulated in the larger interest of non-proliferation.

While fewer countries countered India at the briefing that Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon made to NSG countries before the plenary went in for its closed-door meeting in Vienna this afternoon, sources said, there was pressure building up to “tighten” the draft a bit more.

In this context, Washington has still kept open the possibility of another meeting in early September.

Despite reservations, almost all NSG members spoke in favour of India being given an exemption but some of them felt that the draft circulated by the US fell short on certain counts. Key among them was a need to make it clear that cooperation would end in case India conducted a nuclear test in the future and a reference to CTBT.

This point, sources said, was flagged off even before the meeting by New Zealand which felt that US should include conditions on testing given that the same is also mentioned in the Hyde Act. In fact, New Zealand and to some extent, Ireland, felt that the conditions in the Hyde Act should act as a template of sorts for the NSG as well.

These two countries along with Austria and Norway continued to repeat the line that the exemption would “damage” the NPT and demanded strong conditions, knowing well that India had very limited flexibility in terms of accepting more changes to the existing draft. However, sources pointed out that there was no indication of any united diplomatic effort to challenge the exemption.

... contd.