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| Hail, the victory at Vienna | | | | After a week of disappointment and confusion, the country has once again bounced back to celebration mode with India’s victory at Vienna. The way has at last been paved for India’s formal entry into the global nuclear club and to an end to its 34-year-long nuclear isolation. This has been made possible thanks to the historic decision on Saturday by the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group to allow India, a non-signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to engage in international nuclear commerce and secure for itself such equipment and technology as it needs to meet its nuclear energy requirements. Given the "touch and go" nature of the intense two-day negotiations at the NSG get-together at Vienna, the positive outcome, apart from being truly historic for India, is bound to be greeted with profound relief and satisfaction by all the countries which encouraged and supported India’s bid to obtain a clean (meaning unconditional) clearance by way of an exception to engage in nuclear trade with countries in a position to fulfil India’s needs. The NSG adjourned its Friday’s deliberations at a tentative stage with no clear pointer to an outcome, positive or negative. Between Friday evening and Saturday, when the NSG unanimously granted the waiver to India, a great deal of last-minute efforts in the form of high-level interventions and diplomatic pressure seem to have been expended to facilitate a positive turn to overcome the objections and reservations of the six nations led by Austria and followed by Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, the Netherlands and Switzerland, that had stalled a consensus. The six were by themselves quite a powerful group with a potential to deny a waiver, even a qualified one, but the fact that they enjoyed the tacit support of China strengthened their stand. President Bush reportedly telephoned his Chinese counterpart, the Indian Prime Minister reassured his Norwegian counterpart and there were other delegation-level interactions during the night. China’s favourable response was a major factor in clearing the air for the "sceptics". While these attempts to clear the roadblock on India’s path undoubtedly helped, what emerged as the final persuader to neutralise the Austrian obduracy was apparently external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee’s suo moto statement in New Delhi on Friday evening reassuring the international nuclear community of India’s commitment to non-proliferation and reiterating New Delhi’s intention to abide by its voluntary unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing. Aside from Austria, the other "nonsayers" also were reportedly impressed by New Delhi’s offer to be a participant, as a supplier nation for thorium-based fuel, in the preservation of the non-proliferation regime. New Delhi invoked its diplomatic skills and reach to the full to clear the last hurdle standing between it and the main 123 Indo-US nuclear deal reaching the US Congress well in time for ratification. It will now be up to the Bush administration to ensure that the US Congress’ response to the deal’s ultimate clearance will match those of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and the NSG, both of which have made their own significant contribution to the implementation of India’s energy security strategy and its liberation from nuclear apartheid. |
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