India hopeful about NSG status

Yesterday over chat I talk to Siddharth, Deputy Editor of The Hindu , the sense is very clear .Foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon’s special briefing in Vienna was generally well received by the NSG member states on Thursday, with some describing it as useful and constructive, but Austria, New Zealand and Switzerland continued to hold out on an unconditional waiver for India.
The representatives of these three wanted to know why India should be granted the waiver as they raised issues related to NPT and testing. "Some delegations gave approving statements, but others expressed concerns, and conditions will be tabled this afternoon," a European diplomat told Reuters.
Another report said the mood was positive. A German official said "the questions were constructive and technical, not personal." Germany is the NSG chair.
Mr Menon met some NSG representatives separately in groups, to reassure them India has put in place strict export controls to guard against transfer of dual-use technology or nuclear fuel to ineligible entities.
US ambassador to India David C. Mulford, now camping in Vienna, was busy meeting key members to forge a consensus on integrating India into global nuclear commerce after 34 long years.
As the NSG talks got under way, the US camp urged patience. Mr Mulford told NDTV that Washington thinks a consensus would eventually
be arrived at on the issue of a waiver for India, but
it does not know how quickly.
"This won’t be easy, we need to be patient," Mr Mulford said, adding: "It is quite early to say how the NSG talks will go." The US has, incidentally, said earlier it will act as India’s "sherpa" and work with the NSG members for a waiver.
A report in the Washington Post cited unnamed diplomats as suggesting that the US proposal has aroused scepticism from several members, making it increasingly unlikely that a deal will be reached immediately.
US state department spokesman Robert Wood told the Post "a lot of people have raised questions, and many people think [the India civil nuclear deal] does not fit into the non-proliferation framework. That is not our view."
Mr Shyam Saran, the Prime Minister’s special envoy for the nuclear deal, Mr Ravi B. Grover, director (strategic planning group) in the department of atomic energy, and certain other officials accompanied Mr Menon to the briefing.
The special briefing was held as India, which is not a member of the NSG, wanted to put forth its case directly before the mem-bers of the group that regulates international nuclear trade.
The NSG operates by consensus, so for India every member counts. The talks will resume on Friday.