A US-based arms control organisation has claimed that the draft proposal for admitting new members into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) paves the way for India’s entry but leaves Pakistan out.
According to a report in ‘Dawn’, the Washington-based Arms Control Association (ACA) has warned that relaxing membership rules will undermine non-proliferation.
The US media reported last week that Rafael Mariano Grossi, a former chairman of the NSG, had prepared a two-page document, explaining how a non-NPT state, like India and Pakistan, could join the group.
Grossi’s document enjoys a semi-official status as he was acting on behalf of the current chairman, Song Young-wan of South Korea.
Grossi’s proposal requires a non-NPT state to declare that it has brought into force a clear and strict separation of current and future civilian nuclear facilities from non-civilian nuclear facilities and is willing to apply this principle to future facilities as well.
The new member also needs to assure NSG that it has provided and maintains a declaration to the IAEA that identifies all current and future civilian nuclear facilities.
The applicant also needs to assure NSG that it has enforced a safeguards agreement with the IAEA covering all declared civilian facilities and all future civilian facilities which the IAEA determines are eligible for safeguards.
Grossi’s draft note also proposes that “one non-NPT member state should reach an understanding not to block consensus on membership for another non-NPT member state”.
This is being seen as an attempt to ensure that India does not block Pakistan from joining the NPT.
However, Arms Control Association’s executive director, Daryl Kimball, has warned that Pakistan still has grounds to object to the formula outlined by Mr Grossi.
He further pointed out that the document will require Pakistan to meet the same criteria for membership as India “but, to engage in civil nuclear trade with NSG states, it would have to win a separate NSG exemption from the full-scope safeguards requirement”.
