William Potter: Goodbye to nuclear export controls
The decision early Saturday morning by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to grant an unconditional Indian specific waiver on tough nuclear export guidelines probably was inevitable. A small group of nonproliferation stalwarts — Austria, Ireland, and New Zealand — could not by themselves withstand the onslaught of economic and political pressure brought to bear by four of the nuclear weapons states led by the United States. Ironically, complicity in ignoring non proliferation obligations and bullying reluctant NSG members to exempt India from well established export restraints may be one of the last areas of nuclear cooperation between the United States and Russia. To its credit, only China among the nuclear weapons states, voiced any reservations about the deal, but in the end it too lacked the power of conviction to block an artificial consensus.