India was on Wednesday unperturbed by Nuclear Suppliers Group's decision to strengthen guidelines on enrichment and reprocessing technology transfer, saying it expected its bilateral agreements on full implementation of nuclear deals to be fully honoured without any pre-conditions.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna asserted in the Lok Sabha that the 46-nation NSG had granted "clean" exemption to India "knowing fully well" that it is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and hoped the international atomic order will "continue to evolve in India's favour".
He also underlined that India has "full mastery" of the entire nuclear fuel cycle, including ENR technology and that its transfer has "no bearing" on India's upfront entitlement to reprocess foreign origin spent fuel and the use of such fuel in India's own safeguard facilities.
"We are absolutely clear that as far as India is concerned, the basis of our international civil nuclear cooperation remains as contained in the special exemption from the NSG guidelines given to India on September 6, 2008," Krishna said in a suo motu statement laid on the table.
Seeking to allay members' concerns over the issue after NSG's decision in June to strengthen guidelines on ENR technology transfer, he said, "As far as we are concerned, the September 2008 decision is the basis and overarching framework that governs cooperation in civil nuclear matters between India and the NSG."
Noting that the issue is the "full implementation of that understanding", he said, "This is what we expect and our major partners are committed to."
Krishna said not every NSG member has the ability to undertake transfer of enrichment and reprocessing items and technology to other countries. "We expect that those that do and have committed to do so in bilateral agreements with India, will live up to their legal commitments," he said.
Emphasising that there was "no question" of India joining the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon State, the External Affairs Minister said, "I would also like reassure honourable members that we will not accept pre-conditions for transfer of enrichment and reprocessing items and technology."
He said the agreements reached for permitting international civil nuclear cooperation with India contain commitments on both sides.
"We expect all NSG members to honour their commitments as reflected in the 2008 NSG statement and our bilateral cooperation agreements," he said, while noting that that statement contained reciprocal commitments and actions by both sides relating to international civil nuclear cooperation. Referring to NSG decision of June 23-24, Krishna said it was that of the grouping and India is not a party to the decision as it is not its member.
He cited the statements issued by several of India's partners, including the US, France and Russia, in which they clarified that NSG's decision would in "no way detract" from or affect the exception granted to India in 2008.
"I am confident that the international nuclear order will continue to evolve in India's favour. We are poised to emerge as one of the major nuclear countries in the world, with a large and diversified nuclear industry," Krishna said.
Pointing out that India is engaged in discussions with foreign companies to expand its nuclear energy programme, he said, "We expect our international partners to fully honour their commitments in this regard."
Highlighting that the September 2008 exemption accords a special status to India, Krishna said, "it was granted knowing full well that India is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty."
He drew the attention of the House to August 17, 2006 statement by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in which he had indicated that one of India's main objectives of the Civil Nuclear Initiative was the removal of restrictions on all aspects of cooperation and technology transfers pertaining to civil nuclear energy, covering all aspects of the complete nuclear fuel cycle.
"We see this as the surest guarantee of India's acceptance as a full and equal partner of the international nuclear community," the External Affairs Minister said. As the Prime Minister had informed the House on July 29, 2009, he said, "We were successful in securing a 'clean' exemption from the NSG in September 2008 i.e. the NSG members
had agreed to tran0sfer all technologies which are consistent with their national law."
He also said that note must be taken of the fact that the NSG Public Statement of June 24, 2011 makes a specific reference to cooperation with India. "It says that the NSG continued to consider all aspects of the implementation of the 2008 Statement on Civil Nuclear Cooperation with India and discussed the NSG relationship with India'," Krishna said.
