China, Sweden, Japan rumoured to be against India in NSG
Dated 22/10/2005
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The visiting US undersecretary of state, Nicholas Burns, has indicated to the Indian side that Sweden and Japan among the Nuclear Suppliers
The forty-forty nation NSG has to unanimously lift the sanctions to supply civilian nuclear technology and equipment to India imposed since the 1974 Pokharan tests, and while Sweden says India must be given "quality-specific" nuclear recognition, if at all, because of its non-proliferation record, Japan is reiterating its old anti-nuclear position but could be amenable to Indian negotiations.
Friendly European Union states like France say India must not accept any qualitative recognition, because it would the open the possibility of other threshold nuclear powers clamouring for a similar status, degrading India's position, but that it must insist on country-specific recognition, which would make its atomic position unassailable.
But Burns has said to the Indian side that it must negotiate on its own to overcome Sweden and Japan's opposition, while China would be harder to tackle, but on which India must make a beginning, and officials said the US has meanwhile shown understanding on the difficulty of immediately differentiating civilian and military nuclear reactors as required by the 18 July Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement.
Officials said Burns said that India could begin with marking down research labs as civilian or military, which would not impact on India's deterrence capability, and he assured that the US Congressional ratification of the 18 July nuclear accord was on stream, as president George W.Bush was determined to operationalise the agreement soonest.
