New Delhi, Feb 29 (IANS) More than three years after the Nuclear Suppliers Group allowed India to resume global nuclear commerce, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai will make a strong pitch for New Delhi’s membership of the atomic cartel at an outreach meeting with its key troika members in Vienna Thursday.
Mathai is expected to underline India’s impeccable non-proliferation standards and update the atomic cartel on the steps taken by New Delhi to harmonise the NSG control list with India’s export control systems, informed sources said.
The US, France and Russia have already indicated that they will support India’s membership in the NSG and other key multilateral export regimes, including the Australia Group, the Missile Technology Control Regime and and the Wassenaar Arrangement.
Although the NSG has yet to discuss India’s NSG membership, the Indian delegation headed by Mathai will raise it at the meeting in Vienna.
There are some within the NSG who oppose India’s potential membership as it has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
But there is an increasing realisation that it is better to get India, a rising power, inside the tent rather than keeping it out.
In a landmark step, the NSG agreed by consensus to amend its rules for allowing global nuclear commerce with India in September 2008, paving the way for the sealing of the India-US civil nuclear deal.
