Long way to go before India gets NSG waiver: Experts

"US still working on revised draft and India still demanding "clean and unconditional" waiver. While there is still a distance to go, the proposal to give India a clean exemption from global nuclear trade standards is in deep trouble" Daryl Kimball, the Executive Director of the Arms Control Association, has said.

"... As ACA had predicted, but to the apparent surprise of the Indian and US governments, more than 20 states essentially said 'no thanks' and proposed more than 50 amendments and modifications that would establish some basic, but vitally important restrictions and conditions on nuclear trade with India," he said in an e-mail Statement.

"Many of these amendments track with the restrictions and conditions established in 2006 US legislation regulating US nuclear trade with India, which include the termination of nuclear trade if India resumes testing, a ban on the transfer of uranium enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing technology, a requirement for permanent and unconditional facility- specific safeguards and a review mechanism," he said.

"It is vital that these and other states stand their ground," Kimball maintained.

It has been pointed out that over the weekend the US State Department worked on a revised draft proposal for consideration at the next scheduled NSG meeting on the topic on September 4-5 in Vienna.

"There are signs, however, that the process of developing a revised draft is taking so long that the other 44 members will not have sufficient time to analyse the proposal and work through their respective national political processes to enable them to take a decision by next week," Kimball said.

Furthermore, given India's continuing demands for a "clean and unconditional" exemption, it is unlikely that the United States can find a way to bridge differences, especially in such a short period of time, he said making the point that as of last afternoon the US had still not delivered its revised proposal to NSG...