We have done it: India gets NSG waiver following intense lobbying

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The decision, reached on unanimous consensus, has sparked jubilation both in India and the US, with many political leaders calling it a "historic" and "landmark" decision as it would not only end India's three decades of nuclear isolation but also strengthens the international non-proliferation regime.

The meeting, initially scheduled to take place on Thursday and Friday, dragged on till Saturday as certain countries like Austria, Norway, New Zealand, Ireland, the Netherlands and Switzerland failed to understand why the NSG should make a special exemption for India as the waiver would undermine the NPT and urged that the revised US proposal to lift the ban on trade with India should be a little more explicit in saying, though not outright, that trade with India would be cut off in the event of another nuclear test explosion, no transfers of fuel-enrichment technology would be made that could be replicated for bomb-making, and periodic reviews of the waiver.

However, India said it could not accept any conditions put by the NSG and if any country has any non-proliferation concerns with regard to its case, these should not be reflected in the NSG waiver. Rather, those concerns could be addressed bilaterally with them instead of NSG being involved, it said.

But as these countries remained unconvinced, the meeting dragged on to Saturday even as the US, which vowed to bring the nations around to agree to a "clean" waiver, pushed them harder to give the nod to India.

Meanwhile, India said it would never compromise its sovereignty and tried to allay the apprehensions of the skeptic countries with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee reminding them of India's "impeccable" track record on the non-proliferation front despite not being a signatory to the NPT.

Mukherjee also said that though India has not signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) that prevents countries from conducting further tests, it has announced a voluntary moratorium on further tests and it intends to keep its pledge. India, Mukherjee said, would not touch off a new arms race or share any sensitive nuclear technology with others.

"India believes that the opening of full civil nuclear cooperation will be good for India and for the world. It will have a profound positive impact on global energy security and international efforts to combat climate change," Mukherjee said.

"We do not subscribe to any arms race, including nuclear arms race. We have always tempered the exercise of our strategic autonomy with a sense of global responsibility. We affirm our policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons. We stand for the strengthening of the non-proliferation regime and remain committed to a unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing," he said, adding that India has "a long-standing and steadfast commitment to universal, non-discriminatory and total elimination of nuclear weapons" and the country would not proliferate sensitive technology for uranium enrichment or nuclear fuel reprocessing.

The minister said that India had in place an effective and comprehensive system of national export controls, which had been constantly updated to meet the highest international stands.

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