NSG agreed not to sell sensitive technologies to India: report

Washington, Sept 12 (PTI) The 45-nation NSG privately
agreed in Vienna not to sell sensitive technologies to India
in the "foreseeable future", said a media report that could
stir up more controversy in the ongoing political debate on
the Indo-U.S. civil nuclear deal in New Delhi.

The Washington Post citing unnamed sources familiar
with the negotiation last weekend said that this previously
undisclosed understanding within the NSG helped persuade
several skeptical member states to support a waiver
authorising nuclear trade with India.

"In the discussions about how to handle enrichment and
reprocessing, it was made clear that nobody had any plans to
transfer such technologies to India in the foreseeable
future," a senior US official, speaking on the condition
of anonymity as he was describing private diplomatic
exchanges, told The Post.

The comments came close on the heels of President
George Bush's statement that American commitments to the
Indian side under the agreement were not "legally binding".

The media report goes on to make the point that the
NSG is separately nearing consensus on a total ban on
sensitive sales to countries such as India that have not
signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty -- a move that
would put such trade even further out of New Delhi's reach.

It suggested that though the NSG discussion has
received little public attention, it was another factor in
persuading countries such as Ireland, New Zealand and Austria
to end their effort to write such trade restrictions into the
waiver for India.

The official said that while such statements were not
binding, the NSG countries recognised that they were planning
to "tighten up" the rules on such sales in the near future,
allowing them to achieve the same restrictions on India later
without causing a diplomatic rupture now.