G8 ban on ENR sales shuts Russian door on India

New Delhi, July 12: By not moving quickly to conclude an umbrella nuclear cooperation agreement with Russia before the international goalposts for commerce were moved again, India has made it easier for Washington to roll back the clean exemption the Nuclear Suppliers Group granted New Delhi from its export restrictions last year.

Diplomatic sources told The Hindu that Moscow had approached the Indian side several months ago for the negotiation of an agreement going beyond the one already signed for the purchase of additional reactors at Kudankulam. Such an agreement could have provided for cooperation across the full range of civil nuclear activities and technologies, including enrichment and reprocessing (ENR), and allowed Russia to buck new rules restricting international trade in these technologies by saying such cooperation with India had already been “grandfathered.”

Draft agreement

Though a draft agreement was developed, India showed no urgency in the matter. And now, it may be too late.

On July 8, the G8 declared: “Pending completion of work in the NSG [on new rules restricting ENR sales], we agree to implement [the “clean text” developed at the 20 November 2008 Consultative Group meeting] on a national basis in the next year.”

According to G8 diplomats, this text prohibits the sale of ENR items and technology to countries like India that are not parties to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

After being blindsided by the G8’s decision, officials here scrambled on Saturday to make light of the consequences. South Block officials said that the U.S. had been trying from the outset to exclude ENR items from the purview of nuclear cooperation with India and that it was “only to be expected” that Washington would keep working in this direction.

Despite this knowledge, however, no attempts were made to enlist the support of Russia or France — two countries that stand to make billions from reactor sales to India — in the battle to prevent dilution of the principle of “full civil nuclear cooperation.”

–Agencies