New Delhi reminded the NSG members that they had agreed transfer all nuke technologies to India, subject to their own national laws.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said that the September 2008 exemption by the NSG granted a special status to India. He said that the NSG had granted the waiver knowing fully well that India was not a signatory to the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty. “We see this (the NSG waiver) as the surest guarantee of India’s acceptance as a full and equal partner by the international nuclear community,” Krishna said in a suo moto statement in the Lok Sabha.
“As far as we are concerned, the September 2008 decision is the basis and overarching framework that governs cooperation in civil nuclear matters between India and the NSG. The issue is the full implementation of that understanding. This is what we expect and our major partners are committed to,” said Krishna.
He also recalled Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s August 17, 2006 statement indicating that one of New Delhi’s main objectives in pursuing a civil nuclear agreement with the US was “the removal of restrictions on all aspects of cooperation and technology transfers pertaining to civil nuclear energy, covering all aspects of the complete nuclear fuel cycle”.
But NSG on June 24 last announced fresh guidelines on nuke trade, restricting the transfer of sensitive Enrichment and Reprocessing technology to non-NPT countries.
Krishna said that US, France and Russia had clarified that the NSG’s new guidelines
would have no effect on their civil nuclear cooperation with India. “In so far as enrichment and reprocessing technology is concerned, I would like to reiterate that India has full mastery of the entire nuclear fuel cycle, and this includes enrichment and reprocessing technology. We have a well-developed indigenous enrichment and reprocessing infrastructure,” he said.