JOIN USAt L’Aquila, G8 members agreed to a statement discouraging transfer of ENR items and technology to countries which are not party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. India is one of the three countries which did not sign the NPT. “When I raised this matter with President (Nicholas) Sarkozy, he was gracious enough to tell me that as far as France was concerned, there would be no restrictions,” Singh said in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
“He (Sarkozy) also said that if we want him to go public on this, he will do so. Therefore, there is no consensus in the Nuclear Suppliers Group to debar India from such technologies,” he said.
Last September India secured a clean India-specific exemption from the NSG despite covert attempts to make a distinction between the NPT signatories and those who did not sign the treaty.
But the NSG has agreed to transfer all technologies consistent with the national laws of respective countries.
“It is our expectation that any future decisions of the NSG relating to the transfer of ENR items and technology would take into account the special status accorded to India by the NSG.
The NSG has given us this clean exemption knowing full well that we are not a signatory to the NPT,” Singh added.
The Prime Minister clarified that transfer of ENR items and technology had no bearing on India’s upfront entitlement to reprocess foreign origin spent fuel and use of such fuel on India’s own safeguarded facilities.
DH News Service