A prominent arms control organisation has asked the Nuclear Suppliers Group to reject the revised draft that exempts India from its certain guidelines for nuclear trade, as it does not contain any meaningful adjustments.
On the eve of the crucial meeting of the 45-member NSG, the executive director of the Arms Control Association, Daryl Kimball, argued that “the revised proposal does not incorporate any meaningful adjustments or concessions and is essentially the same as the earlier draft proposal”.
'US Cong may hold lame-duck session'
Ahead of the NSG meet in Vienna, senior Congressional leaders have indicated that the House of Representatives and Senate could come back after the November 4 presidential poll for a ‘lame-duck’ session to clear pending business, which may include the Indo-US nuclear deal. The fate of the civilian nuclear initiative in the Congress need not necessarily be decided in the short timeframe of the September 8-26 session, which meets after the NSG meeting in Vienna on September 4-5.
Japanese civic groups oppose N-deal
A few surviving members of the Nagasaki atomic-bomb catastrophe plan to appeal to NSG countries to oppose the Indo-US nuclear deal. The members, who are party of five groups of survivors, pointed out in a letter that if any favourable treatment for India was allowed, it would not only lead to the total collapse of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty structure but also provide excuses for countries like Iran and North Korea to engage in atomic development, Kyodo was quoted as saying.