New Delhi
19 June 2011
India has voiced deep reservations about a move by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to withhold the transfer of enrichment and reprocessing technology (or ENR) to non-NPT signatories such as India. New Delhi has contended that doing so would dilute the import or the message of the exemption granted to India in September 2008.
Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao was understood to have discussed this, and other matters, with Ellen Tauscher, United States under secretary of state for arms control and international security affairs in Vienna last week. Ms Rao also met Yukiya Amano, the director-general of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
A government source said that India's quest for the membership of multilateral export control organisations or regimes, such as the NSG, the Australia Group (to prevent the spread of chemical and biological weapons), the Wassenaar Arrangement (for dual-use goods and technologies), and the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), figured in those discussions.
India and the US do not agree on everything, the source pointed out, indicating that certain issues required further negotiations. Simultaneously, India was reaching out to the other NSG members, including the NSG Troika comprising New Zealand, Hungary and the Netherlands.
Meanwhile, New Delhi has urged the international community to jointly combat piracy in the Indian Ocean region. At least 550 persons, including 39 Indian nationals, were still being held hostage by Somali pirates. There have been 165 incidents, including 45 hijackings, this year.
It maintained that it could not provide security to every single sailor or pay ransom to secure their release. "If we pay ransom for one, then all Indian soldiers will become sitting ducks for pirates as they will know that government will pay," a source said.
Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao was understood to have discussed this, and other matters, with Ellen Tauscher, United States under secretary of state for arms control and international security affairs in Vienna last week. Ms Rao also met Yukiya Amano, the director-general of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
A government source said that India's quest for the membership of multilateral export control organisations or regimes, such as the NSG, the Australia Group (to prevent the spread of chemical and biological weapons), the Wassenaar Arrangement (for dual-use goods and technologies), and the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), figured in those discussions.
India and the US do not agree on everything, the source pointed out, indicating that certain issues required further negotiations. Simultaneously, India was reaching out to the other NSG members, including the NSG Troika comprising New Zealand, Hungary and the Netherlands.
Meanwhile, New Delhi has urged the international community to jointly combat piracy in the Indian Ocean region. At least 550 persons, including 39 Indian nationals, were still being held hostage by Somali pirates. There have been 165 incidents, including 45 hijackings, this year.
It maintained that it could not provide security to every single sailor or pay ransom to secure their release. "If we pay ransom for one, then all Indian soldiers will become sitting ducks for pirates as they will know that government will pay," a source said.
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