Sleepless in Vienna: China threatens to leave for home, US works into the night

A new NSG draft was in the works and had been sent to Washington for clearance although India made it clear that there was almost no scope to revise the draft in substantive terms.

The Chinese, sources said, objected to what they called was the manner in which matters were being pushed on an issue they said involved the future of the global non-proliferation regime.

Well aware of the stakes in the Indo-US nuclear deal — and the tight Congressional calendar ahead — the “highest levels” in Washington got in touch with their counterparts in Beijing to get China to stay on by including it in the consultative process.

China, which until yesterday was in the background trying to play arbitrator of sorts by suggesting to hold another meeting, seemed to suddenly reveal its hand in the most unexpected manner.

Among the suggestions from some countries to break the deadlock was to place a provision banning transfer of enrichment and reprocessing technology. India has so far maintained it cannot accept a restriction not existing in current NSG guidelines.

Austria and Ireland were, however, keen to introduce language on testing. Austria, in particular, cited domestic concerns.

India and US spent the whole day today slowly chipping away at the opposition with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee issuing a statement underlining New Delhi’s commitment to global disarmament and strengthening the international non-proliferation regime.

The statement was circulated immediately at the start of the NSG meet this morning soon after it was clear that the Netherlands and Norway had moved away from the club of six holdouts.

The meeting broke up within 90 minutes as countries said they had to consult their respective capitals.

At that point, US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control John Rood emerged from the discussions and welcomed what he called India’s “very significant statement.” It “has generated a positive momentum for the discussions,” he said. “We both are committed to the objective of achieving a consensus and are optimistic that we can achieve this goal.”

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