India gets the NSG waiver as it joins the Nuclear club

Finally, after intense negotiations from US and India and despite India’s point blank refusal to consider any strings to be attached regarding the ban on any future nuclear tests, the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) gave a complete and clean waiver to India.  The unprecedented decision of the 45-nation nuclear cartel giving exemption to a country which has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) is a landmark step in the implementation of the Indo-US nuclear deal that will now go to the US Congress for approval.

The discussions went on to third day – a day more than scheduled – as the US team took the negative members in separate rooms to discuss the importance of this deal.  Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s statement reiterating voluntary moratorium on nuclear testing, which India made even after the Nuclear tests helped clinch the deal.

The deal now has to be passed by the US Congress.  The State Department has been sending out contradictory signals in an attempt to bomb this deal, but hopefully the NSG waiver would help the US Congress go ahead with the affirmative reply as well.