US Senate panel scuttles Indian bid to become NSG member

WASHINGTON: A powerful panel of the US Senate washed down India’s wish to get an unchecked membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and strongly demanded that it must sign CTBT and halt fissile material production prior to admission.

The US support to India’s bid for the NSG membership came in sharp focus during a hearing on the US-India relations carried out by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday. Senator Ed Markey questioned Assistant Secretaryof State Nisha Biswal if India was even qualified for the NSG membership in the light of strict guidelines. The rules require members to be part of Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). He said if India ended up in the NSG, it would be the only participating government that was not party to NPT and did not have full scope of IAEA safeguards.

The senator also criticised the Obama administration’s policy towards India saying that unfortunately, the US had repeatedly carved out exemptions for India. The senator recalled that the US had supplied uranium to India in 1980; followed by 2008 waiver by the NSG without making India accepting full scope of safeguards. “Today we are not only granting India an exemption from global rules but we are in fact lobbying to admit India in the body that makes such rules,” he said.

Senator Markey also said that despite a lack of consensus in NSG on India’s membership, the Obama administration was forcefully pressing ahead for vote. The whole purpose of the NSG is to ensure that nuclear technologies remain under full scope of IAEA safeguards and India is undermining those rules.

He also pointed out that admitting India to the NSG would either require revising the NSG membership guidelines that require full scope of IAEA safeguards and accession to NPT or an equivalent non-proliferation treaty or bypassing these rules. He asked Assistant Secretary Biswal which one of these options were being considered by the administration. She responded that the US believed that India qualified for the NSG membership and she would need to consult further for such questions.

Dissatisfied with her answer, the senator said that policy of giving exemptions started a dangerous escalation cycle since Pakistan warned the world in 2008 that NSG waiver could result in a nuclear arms race in South Asia. India has continued to produce fissile material for its nuclear weapons programme virtually unchecked. “At that time Pakistan warned us that the deal would increase the chances of the nuclear arms race in South Asia,” he said while asking, “In your view how would granting a state specific exemption affect Pakistan’s nuclear choices. Would it complicate efforts to refrain Pakistan from undertaking further destabilising efforts such as the battlefield nuclear weapons?” He further questioned, “Is there a relationship between what we do with India such as granting them exemptions from the rules and how we deal with Pakistan in restraining them from making certain choices?”

The senator acknowledged that it was an unnecessary policy. “Making these exemptions further infuriates Pakistan into further expanding its nuclear capacity. It is a very dangerous long-term grant especially when we are so concerned on the specter of nuclear weapons falling in the hands of non-state actors.”

The panel cautioned that granting another exemption to India, the US might be aiding action-reaction cycle in South Asia, and demanded that India should follow the international safeguards before its admission to the NSG.