New Delhi, July 29 (IANS) India will not be affected by the G8 stand on nuclear commerce as there is no consensus among the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to prohibit the transfer of enrichment and reprocessing technology to non-signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told parliament Wednesday.
“Prohibition by the NSG of such transfers would require a consensus amongst all the 45 countries. This does not exist at present,” Singh said in his reply to the debate in the Lok Sabha on the government’s recent foreign policy initiatives, adding that there was no way India would accede to the NPT.

He was referring to the statement issued by G-8 in Italy that spoke of prohibiting the transfer of enrichment and nuclear reprocessing (ENR) technology to non-NPT countries.

“The government is fully committed to the achievement of full international civil nuclear cooperation,” Manmohan Singh maintained.

He pointed out that India had secured a clean India-specific waiver from the NSG. “At that time also, attempts were made to make a distinction. The NSG has agreed to transfer all technologies consistent with their national laws,” the prime minister contended.

He added that the transfer of enrichment and reprocessing items and technology “has no bearing whatsoever on India’s upfront entitlement to reprocess foreign origin spent fuel and the use of such fuel in our own safeguarded facilities”.

In this context, Manmohan Singh noted that India had “full mastery” of the nuclear fuel cycle. “The transfer of enrichment and reprocessing items and technology to India as part of full international civil nuclear cooperation would be an additionality to accelerate our three-stage programme.”

He pointed out that he had raised the G8 statement with French President Nicholas Sarkozy, who “was gracious enough to tell me that as far as France is concerned, there will be no restrictions”.

The prime minister reminded the house that India has no civil nuclear cooperation agreement with the G8 block but has signed signed bilateral agreements with France, Russia and the United States.

“Therefore, there is no consensus in the NSG to debar India from such technologies. We expect that the countries concerned will honour and implement their bilateral commitments”, he added.

He also reiterated that there was no way that India would join NPT as a non-nuclear weapon state.

– Indo-Asian News Service

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