 "Sheel Kant Sharma")
Sheel Kant Sharma is India's most experienced diplomat on issues of international nuclear diplomacy. Sharma was India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Vienna and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Indian governor to the IAEA Board of Governors in 2004-08. Sharma, also a former secretary general of the SAARC, tells Archis Mohan about the present state of play on India's negotiations to enter the 48-member club.
Why is it important for India to get the membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG)?
The NSG was originally set up in 1974 under the US leadership to supplement the objectives of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) through strict export controls on nuclear material, equipment and technology. Countries which joined the US had also done so reacting to India's 1974 PNE (Peaceful Nuclear Explosion).
Thirty years later, however, it was the US that made an exhaustive review and concluded that India deserved being a full partner contributing to the global non-proliferation regime as an advanced nation with nuclear technology. The Washington Joint Statement of July 18, 2005, marked a watershed (in this regard). It comprised, among other things, a US commitment to facilitating India's inclusion in global nuclear commerce to meet its mounting need for energy. For India, this vindicated its long-standing position and an impeccable record in contributing to non-proliferation goals. India's joining the NSG as a participating state will mark fulfilment of this commitment. The past decade has already registered crucial landmarks on the way to India's mainstreaming into global nuclear order. The 2008 NSG exemption for nuclear trade with India, India's Safeguard Agreement with the IAEA and the Additional Protocol thereto, India-US Nuclear Cooperation Agreement and similar agreements with founding member states of the NSG demonstrate this trend. India's entry into the NSG will be the culmination of decade-long efforts.
What will it put on the table for India?
Technology controls, as implemented by the NSG, will be enduring features of the nuclear age in this century and it is wise to be among those responsible to ensure that these controls effectively contribute to non-proliferation goals. India as a participating state would be fit to play its due role, both as a user and a supplier, with all-round prowess in dealing with the entire nuclear fuel cycle, abiding with global norms and transparent responsibility by way of its legally enforced export controls harmonised with NSG standards.
Finally, it will be in consonance, in a vital sense, with India's pristine role half a century back in the 1950s in the follow-up to then US President Dwight D Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace initiative. India was included among the states called the Group of Twelve that set about to create the most important international organisation in the nuclear field, the IAEA. India had joined in this endeavour with the US, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Belgium, Portugal, the USSR, Poland, Czechoslovakia, the UK and Brazil. Homi Bhabha had chaired the diplomatic conference in 1957 that finally adopted the IAEA's Statute. India then was accepted as a country ready for nuclear cooperation by key nations like the US, Canada, the UK and the USSR.
There is a viewpoint that India doesn't need to become a member as the 2008 NSG waiver had got India what it needed. How do you see the recent diplomatic offensive to get membership?
The NSG does not have members as such, just participating states. It is a dynamic group without rigid structures or procedural bottlenecks. Its participating states hold regular as well as extraordinary meetings with a view to strengthening the guidelines for nuclear export controls aiming at an effective global non-proliferation regime. As nuclear energy is going to be substantial to India's clean energy mix in the foreseeable future, it stands to reason that India be a participating state in the NSG. India has for more than a decade actively engaged with the NSG to clarify doubts, provide assurances and demonstrate commitment through actions. India has concluded nuclear cooperation agreements with key stakeholders of the NSG, scrupulously pursued dialogue and engagement with each participating state and steadfastly adhered to commitments made to the NSG in 2008. The support offered to India's joining the NSG by a growing and vast majority of the participating states shows appreciation of its role as a credible and capable partner.
Those who oppose India's entry to the club point to it not being a signatory to the NPT? How important is that argument?
The NSG is a voluntary grouping with no specific treaty framework. It is also different from the Zangger Committee, which consisted of only the NPT parties and preceded the NSG in 1971. The Zangger Committee framed the guidelines for export controls, supplementing and reinforcing the NPT's Article III in regard to requirement of safeguards on export of sensitive material and equipment. Even as the NSG adopted these guidelines in 1975, it had France as a member. France was not party to the NPT till 1992, though it supported the NPT from outside (just as India does). The US, however, passed stricter domestic legislation in 1978 that went further and insisted on comprehensive IAEA safeguards as condition for nuclear export to non-nuclear weapon states. The NSG adopted these stricter guidelines much later, in 1992, after the Iraq experience. It is thus significant that the US, which has the strictest domestic legislation on export controls, is satisfied with India's credentials to join the NSG and does not insist on NPT adherence as the sole criterion.
NSG guidelines are voluntarily accepted and promulgated by domestic legal acts, as India has already done. IAEA safeguards are integral to all the bilateral cooperation agreements, which India has concluded. In fact, these bilateral agreements lay down extensive non-proliferation and arms control obligations, which India observes. These obligations and commitments by India meet the "factors" that the NSG documents allude to as required for participating states. The vast majority of participating states, which support India, take due cognisance of these factors and weigh India's case on its merits.
According to reports, China is leading a group of countries which oppose India's entry into the NSG. Is larger geopolitics at work here?
India is also engaged with China in a continuing dialogue. During the recent visit of President Pranab Mukherjee to China, peaceful nuclear cooperation was also covered. India's dialogue is focused on its own needs and merits with regard to peaceful uses of nuclear energy. There is adequate professional basis rooted in long-standing practice and precedent at the NSG to address matters at hand without bringing in extraneous considerations of geopolitics.
The NSG's remit and its evolution as a group is based on voluntary participation of states and banks on the paradigm of consensus and deference to the views of all. Consensus in this context is not reducible to exercise of veto. Continued diplomatic engagement with China, therefore, may lead to improved mutual understanding.
What are the NSG procedures regarding membership? Can New Delhi apply again if its membership is rejected this time?
The proceedings of the NSG are confidential and carefully nuanced. However, a public statement is given out after plenary meetings. The US had circulated without pressing for decision a "food for thought" paper to the NSG in 2011 concerning India's possible entry into the group. Since then public statements after the NSG plenary meetings, for example, in the Netherlands (2011), the US (2012), Czech Republic (2013) and Argentina (2014, 2015) reported on the ongoing engagement with India. It stated that the NSG "shared information on all aspects of the 2008 Statement on Civil Nuclear Cooperation with India and discussed the NSG relationship with India". In this respect India is in a"stand-alone" category. It has already made an application to join as a participating state. The Plenary meeting scheduled in Seoul is expected to consider this application.
