An influential world body that controls nuclear exports will address the sensitive issue of closer ties with India - which is outside the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) - at an annual meeting this week, a draft agenda obtained by Reuters showed.
The United States, Britain and others have argued that nuclear-armed India should join the secretive 48-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group - established in 1975 to ensure that civilian atomic trade is not diverted for military purposes.
But other NSG states have voiced doubt about accepting a country that built up a nuclear arsenal outside a 189-nation treaty set up four decades ago to prevent states from acquiring such weapons of mass destruction.
Days ahead of the June 26-27 NSG meeting in Buenos Aires, India said it was ratifying an agreement, a so-called Additional Protocol, with the International Atomic Energy Agency to expand oversight over its civilian nuclear programme. The United States said this marked another “important step in bringing India into the international non-proliferation mainstream.”
But some critics questioned the step’s significance, as it would not affect India’s nuclear weapons programme and sensitive atomic fuel activities.
They said the Indian agreement was a much weaker version of a deal most other IAEA members have, giving the UN watchdog wide inspection powers to make sure there are no covert nuclear activities in a country.
Chinese reservations
Beijing’s reservations are believed to be influenced by its ties to its ally Pakistan, which is also outside the NPT, analysts say.
To receive civilian nuclear exports, nations that are not one of the five officially recognised nuclear arms states - those that had known arsenals before the NPT was hatched - must usually place their nuclear activities under IAEA safeguards.
When the United States sealed a nuclear supply deal with India in 2008 China and others found it questionable because Delhi is outside the NPT.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 25th, 2014.
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