The United States has proposed to waive a ban on nuclear trade with India without conditions such as compliance with a nuclear test ban or UN inspections, but diplomats said on Thursday the draft was unlikely to pass.
The draft, circulated among members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and unveiled late on Wednesday by an arms control advocacy, will be discussed by the NSG next week in Vienna.
A green light by the 45-nation NSG, which operates by consensus, is necessary for the 2005 US-India deal on nuclear trade to proceed to US Congress for final ratification. It would lift a 34-year embargo on nuclear trade for civilian purposes with the Asian atomic power, which has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty and has tested atomic bombs.
But diplomats from several NSG member states said the draft fell behind earlier US proposals, had unacceptable clauses and omissions, and went against existing US laws on the deal. "I would be very surprised if that would happen," said a diplomat, who like the others, spoke on condition of anonymity.
"There are no conditions. Obviously what is missing is that (the waiver) is void if there is another atomic test." A second diplomat said: "I think a majority of countries feel that the current draft is very weak and there is no conditionally at all... I don't really think that the US expect that they are able to pass this draft."
If the waiver does not get NSG approval next week or at a second meeting likely early next month, it may not get ratified by the end of September, when US Congress adjourns for November elections, and could face indefinite limbo. The draft was published by the US-based Arms Control Association (ww w.armscontrol.org) late on Wednesday. A spokeswoman for the US mission in Vienna declined to comment.
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