Vienna: A two-day meeting of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), beginning Thursday, will see the United States and India try and convince the body to agree on a landmark nuclear deal designed to bring India out of nuclear isolation and into the mainstream of nuclear trade and commerce. The NSG is the governing body for international nuclear commerce.

The two nations recently succeeded in getting the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a United Nations nuclear watchdog body, to approve key safeguards for the agreement.

In essence the US will ask the NSG members to grant an exemption for India to receive atomic fuel and technology, even though it is not part of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The body must unanimously approve the exemptions before the deal transits the Atlantic and appears before the US Congress for final consideration and approval
The Germany-chaired NSG meeting is the penultimate step in the approvals process. 

"We are hoping to get as wide an approval as possible so that we can move on with regard to having this agreement for Congress to look at, but I don't want to get ahead of the suppliers group meeting," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said when asked if Washington was confident of unanimous NSG approval. "That's our hope," he said.

The NSG, which governs trade in nuclear materials and processes, operates by consensus, a procedure which allows any of its 45 member nations to block, or significantly amend, any agreement if they so desire.

Though the deal has received widespread support amongst NSG member nations it has its share of the uncommitted or those opposed. These have included countries such as Canada, Japan and Australia. But as efforts have intensified since the IAEA meeting last month to win over opposition, these countries have signalled that they may not block the deal even though they may refrain from extending whole- hearted support. 

From appearances, nations who may put up a more substantial opposition will include Austria, Switzerland, Ireland, Norway, and New Zealand. 

An unnamed Irish diplomat was quoted in media reports as saying that the country had "...raised questions throughout the process, particularly in relation to the implications to the non proliferation treaty."

He, however, acknowledged that "it is a very important document for the U.S. and India" and that "we are actively engaged in ongoing discussions."

Phil Goff, New Zealand's minister for disarmament and arms control, told Indian media on Wednesday that his country "has not arrived at a final position" on whether to approve the deal, but "like a number of countries, we do have reservations".

New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark recently said, "It would be no secret that we would like to see more conditionalities around the agreement," adding that "we are pursuing this diplomatically with like-minded countries."

Condoleezza Rice, travelled to New Zealand last month, a first visit to the country by a US secretary of state, in nine years, in part to lobby for the deal.

If the word of a top Swiss lawmaker, recently visiting India, is anything to go by then it is likely that Switzerland too would "most likely" support a waiver for India at the NSG meeting.

"The Indo-US nuclear deal is important for India's energy security and I think Swiss Government will most likely support the waiver for New Delhi at the NSG meet," the Speaker of the upper house of Swiss parliament Christoffel Brandil told an Indian news agency.

Brandil, who was in New Delhi leading a parliamentary delegation, said Switzerland understands India's energy requirement for overall economic development. "The nuclear deal is good for India and it should be allowed to go through," Brandil said. "It is a decision that has to be taken by the government. The Parliament has no role to play in it. But I am confident that the government will take a favourable stand on the issue."