NSG clearance: Menon to work on German leadership

NEW DELHI: After the trust vote win on Tuesday, the government has sent a slew of diplomats around the world.
Nalin Surie, secretary (west) in MEA, will be in Romania, Bulgaria and others like Albania, Slovenia who are all key member states in the NSG to do some persuasive diplomacy there. N Ravi, secretary (east), is attending the Asean Regional Forum (ARF) in Singapore, and will explain India's position on the nuclear deal to important members like Australia, New Zealand, Canada and others.
With all eyes now on the NSG's exemption for India's nuclear deal, foreign secretary Menon is scheduled to hold talks with the German leadership.Germany is the chairman of the group this year. Menon will meet his counterpart in Berlin as well as call on foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Germany will only convene a meeting of the NSG after the IAEA vote on August 1. It would probably call a consultative meeting in the early days of August, leaving the plenary until later in the month. This meeting will work on the draft text of the exemption as well as try to answer questions on the safeguards agreement and the 123 text.
India will be working with Germany to make sure that the exemption draft to be circulated is "unconditional". In a related development, US ambassador David Mulford said on Wednesday that the US was leaning hard on Pakistan to persuade it to back away from pushing for a vote on the India safeguards agreement in the IAEA board.
Pakistan has indicated that it might ask for a vote hoping to put divisions in the IAEA to the fore. But analysts here said that IAEA was a UN body so voting on a decision is not unknown.
However, sources here believe the IAEA agreement should not be a difficult achievement for India. Even the secretary of Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Anil Kakodkar, expressed confidence that the safeguards agreement would be through.
The US wants the Indian nuclear agreement to be in the Congress by the end of the first week of September, Mulford said. This would give the deal a fighting chance of going through before president George Bush leaves office.
In the US, galvanized by the tortuous parliamentary exercise in India, the administration is moving to connect the loose ends. A steering group with members from the state department, nuclear negotiators and other agencies has been brought together under one umbrella to work on the deal in a concerted manner.
No Asean member is a member of the NSG, but an Asean statement on Wednesday terming the nuclear deal as "positive" is a feather in India's cap. Minister of state in the foreign ministry, Anand Sharma, attending the ARF, said after meeting Australian foreign minister Stephen Smith that Canberra would be on India's side at NSG.