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New Delhi: Four years
after the 46-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) opened the doors
for global nuclear trade for New Delhi, India is steadily inching
closer to its pursuit of joining the world's top four atomic
control regimes with a large number of countries in favour of
getting it within the non-proliferation tent.
Marking a spectacular turnaround in global attitudes, India, which
was once seen as a pariah after it went nuclear in 1998, garnered
the NSG approval for the India-US civil nuclear deal and global
nuclear cooperation on Sept 6, 2008.
Over the last four years, India has been lobbying with key NSG
players for membership of the four key multilateral nuclear export
regimes - the NSG, the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR),
the Australia Group and the Wassenaar Arrangement.
The result has been largely satisfying, well-placed sources close
to the strategic-nuclear establishment told IANS.
"We have made steady progress. The preparatory phase is well under
way," the sources said.
India feels that joining the NSG is key to the entire game as it
will set the stage for it to join the other three regimes, which
have different compositions and membership criteria.
"There is a general consensus that India will join the four
regimes in a coordinated manner. The key to the entire game is the
NSG. In our assessment, NSG is the most important," the sources
said.
On this front, there is some good news to cheer. Leading NSG
members, including the US, Russia, France and Britain, have
already expressed support for India joining the top multilateral
regimes. "A large number of countries are in favour of India
joining these regimes," the sources disclosed to IANS.
Indian officials have been careful not to set any time-frame for
New Delhi's entry into the four regimes but stress that the
discussions are evolving in a positive manner. They cite the
growing consensus in the NSG on getting India inside the tent
rather than keeping it out.
India, said the sources, is being increasingly seen as a
like-minded country that serves the interests and goals of the
non-proliferation regimes. "India's non-proliferation record is
exemplary. It's as much in India's interests as it is in the
interests of the world," the sources said.
The US, the prime mover behind India's global nuclear
rapprochement, is also leading the charge this time round.
In a breakthrough of sorts, the US has agreed to disassociate
India's membership of the NSG from its accession to the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). India has made it clear it will
never join the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon state as it regards the
NPT as a discriminatory regime that divides the world into the
nuclear haves and have-nots. In this context, the US circulated a
"non-paper" on India's membership at the NSG plenary meeting held
in Seattle on June 22.
The most controversial part of the paper is that NPT membership is
not being seen as a "condition" for being in the NSG, carrying
forward its recommendation for India's membership that the US had
circulated at the last plenary at Noordwijk in the Netherlands
last year.
What has brightened India's chances is that the US is helming the
NSG this year.
However, as the NSG works by consensus, China may prove to be a
hurdle. China had deftly hedged on the India-US civil nuclear deal
and even encouraged fence-sitters in the NSG not to support the
deal in days prior to the Sept 6, 2008, approval. But India is
hoping that if the rest of the NSG, or at least a majority of the
NSG, supports India's bid to join these regimes, Beijing will not
like to be seen as a spoiler.
To buttress its credentials, India is ready to negotiate a
multilateral non-discriminatory, universally verifiable Fissile
Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT), but Pakistan's opposition to the
FMCT has stalled this crucial pact that seeks to curb the
production of weapons-grade fissile material. India is also
haromnising its national laws and nuclear safety standards with
the international obligations that will flow from joining the top
four regimes.
(Manish Chand can be contacted at manish.c@ians.in)
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