Vienna: The 45-member Nuclear Suppliers' Group Saturday passed by consensus a "clean waiver" to start nuclear commerce with India.

There were no "major changes" in the draft but the language and wordings worked on by the US were acceptable to all the NSG members.

The US had earlier consulted India on the changes brought about in the wordings of the draft, and put it before the NSG members, only after it met New Delhi's approval.

A formal announcement will be made shortly in Vienna by Germany, the chairman of the 45-member powerful cartel that controls the global supply of nuclear fuel and technologies.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who was part of Friday's late night consultation with the Americans on the changed language in the draft, apprised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about the developments in the NSG Saturday morning.

The NSG's decision to grant India a "clean waiver" from its existing rules, which forbid nuclear trade with a country which has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), came after three days of intense diplomacy by the US in the nuclear cartel.

 

Source : IANS