By NNN-PTI,
New Delhi : India affirmed its commitment to strengthening the non-proliferation regime and vowed to abide by its voluntary moratorium on nuclear testing, a move aimed at assuaging concerns of some NSG countries on giving it a waiver for nuclear commerce.
New Delhi also made it clear that it will not be a source of proliferation of sensitive technologies, including enrichment and reprocessing transfers and will work with the international community to advance the common objective of non-proliferation.
“We remain committed to a voluntary, unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing,” External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in a statement here on Friday.
India’s assertion came as four countries of the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) stuck to their reservations on the waiver issue at the two-day meeting of the cartel in Vienna.
They felt that India could use the NSG exemption to further its military nuclear programme.
New Zealand, Austria, Ireland, and Switzerland have sought changes in the draft proposed by the US which projected the waiver as a “historic opportunity” to bring the largest democracy and one of the biggest economies into the global nuclear mainstream.
Mukherjee’s statement is significant as it comes soon after Indian officials led by Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon met representatives of ‘sceptic’ countries of NSG and is seen as an attempt to allay their reservations.
An NSG waiver is a key step in the operationalisation of the nuclear deal which will go to the US Congress for approval once the atomic cartel gives the green light.