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Wednesday, Aug 20, 2008
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India to brief NSG troika today

Siddharth Varadarajan

The 45-nation cartel will meet tomorrow

Vienna: Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon will meet the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) ‘troika’ late Wednesday evening in the run-up to the August 21 meeting of the 45-nation cartel, where the fate of the American proposal to allow nuclear commerce with India will be decided.

Germany is the current chair of the NSG and the other two members of the troika are South Africa and Hungary, the previous and next chairs of the group respectively.

In line with India’s decision to avoid sitting in or otherwise addressing the cartel’s plenary, Mr. Menon will hold a separate briefing for NSG members during the morning of August 21. NSG country representatives will begin their meeting at the Japanese mission near the International Atomic Energy Agency here at 9.30 a.m. and are expected to troop out for the Indian briefing after adjourning mid-morning.

The special briefing will be held on the premises of the Vienna International Centre, a stone’s throw away from the building which houses the Japanese mission.

The mission serves as the NSG’s ‘point of contact’ and often hosts consultative and technical meetings of the group.

Though the August 21-22 meeting was originally meant to be held in Berlin, the German Foreign Office reportedly said it did not have the budgetary provision to host another plenary so soon after the regularly scheduled session this May.

Asked whether this was indeed the case, a German official told The Hindu cryptically, “Well, we are always short of money".

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