Antinuclear

Non-proliferation panel concerned about India exemption from NSG guidelines, The Hindu, 6 July 2010, P. S. Suryanarayana The International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) on Monday emphasised its “concerns about the terms of the exemption approved [in September 2008] by the Nuclear Suppliers Group [NSG] for India’s nuclear programmes.”As an independent global panel set up by the governments of Australia and Japan, the Commission reaffirmed a concern that India’s exemption from the NSG guidelines “did not require a strong new commitment [by New Delhi] to disarmament and non-proliferation objectives and measures.”

The panel’s communiqué, received by TheHindu, contains a message directly relevant to the current international focus on cooperation between China and Pakistan in the civil nuclear energy domain.

In the steadfast “view” of the Commission, any future supply [of nuclear materials]” to countries outside the ambit of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) must be based on at least one major condition on two aspects. The recommended “condition” was that “the receiving state [will] not conduct any nuclear test, and [will] implement a moratorium on the production of fissile material for weapon purposes, pending the [global] entry into force of a fissile material production ban.”

The Hindu : News : Non-proliferation panel concerned about India exemption from NSG