The first meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) held on August 21-22 in Vienna did not manage to arrive at a consensus on the issue of granting a waiver to India. Reportedly, six countries led by Austria, New Zealand and Switzerland raised questions and made suggestions to the existing draft circulated by the US. These countries raised issues related to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the issue of testing and questioned the grant of a waiver to India to conduct civil nuclear trade1.

Following the August 21-22 meeting, many countries who had expressed their reservations have since clarified their position on the Indian case at the NSG. Leading the pack is Japan and New Zealand. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura stated that “India's promotion of nuclear power generation will contribute to efforts to control global warming.” New Zealand’s Disarmament Minister, Phil Goff clarified that “while New Zealand remains a strong advocate of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and would welcome India's accession to these treaties, we have not included these elements in our package of proposals2.”

The NSG would hold a second Extraordinary Plenary meeting to discuss the Indian case on September 4-5. Both US and India see this meeting as the last chance to get the waiver passed before the window of opportunity closes in the US Congress3.

• 1. “NSG meets on India waiver issue, 3 nations raise questions,” The Hindu, August 21, 2008, at http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/000200808211970.htm
• 2. Michael Field, “NZ denies blocking India's nuclear dream,” Stuff New Zealand, September 02, 2008, at http://www.stuff.co.nz/4670950a12.html
• 3. Siddharth Varadarajan, “Second NSG meet is ‘last chance’ for nuclear deal,” The Hindu, September 02, 2008, at http://www.hindu.com/2008/09/02/stories/2008090260511200.htm