Senior US official allays fears on the NSG decision

New Delhi: Allaying fears over the recent NSG decision to tighten enrichment and reprocessing technology (ENR) transfer norms, the US today ruled out any inconsistency between the proposed move and Indo-US civil nuclear agreement and said there was "no betrayal of sorts".

"There is nothing new in this. (There is) no betrayal of sorts that we have to be very very clear about..." US Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel B Poneman said while maintaining that the Nuclear Suppliers Group, since its inception, is dedicated to minimising those transfers that could lead to proliferation.

He was replying to a query on the recent decision of the elite 46-nation grouping to strengthen guidelines for the ENR technology transfer and India`s top scientist Anil Kakodkar terming the development as a `betrayal`.

"There is nothing inconsistent in what has been happening in the NSG guidelines and the bilateral cooperation between the US and India," Poneman said after his special address on US-India collaboration on Clean Energy at TERI University here.

He also made it clear that the US was looking forward to the Indian nuclear market and the ratification of the UN Convention on Supplementary Compensation by New Delhi will allow American companies to participate fully in the country.