Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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Question 107: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will report on the most recent meeting, in April 2007, of the Nuclear Suppliers' Group Plenary meeting in Cape Town, South Africa; the outcome of this meeting; the position Ireland took at the meeting; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18667/07]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The seventeenth Plenary Meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) took place in Cape Town on 19-20 April 2007. The Plenary was preceded by a number of other meetings that week, including the NSG Consultative Group, an information exchange meeting and a meeting of licensing officers.

The deliberations of the NSG are confidential. In general terms, however, these meetings focused on issues concerned with the core objective of the NSG, viz. to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons through the implementation, on a national basis, of export controls on nuclear and nuclear-related material, equipment and technology.

It was of particular importance from Ireland's perspective to receive an update on developments in respect of the US-India deal on nuclear co-operation. This occurred not during the Plenary but during the preceding NSG Consultative Group. The US reported that there remained a number of difficulties in respect of the bilateral agreement currently under negotiation with India. Ireland, together with several other like-minded countries, took the opportunity to seek clarification, both on the current state of play of these bilateral negotiations, and on the likely nature of any future request for the NSG to take a decision on this matter.

Negotiations between India and the US on the substance of their bilateral agreement also took place in Cape Town outside the framework of the NSG Plenary. Discussions have continued between the two sides in the period since then. Our understanding is that efforts to bridge the gaps have not so far proved successful and further discussions have been scheduled for mid-July in Washington.

The discussions in Cape Town confirmed our current sense that the NSG will not be asked to take any decision in respect of nuclear co-operation with India until after the US-Indian bilateral agreement has been finalised and India has concluded a safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Negotiations on the latter have not yet commenced, pending the conclusion of the bilateral agreement.

The next NSG Plenary meeting is scheduled to take place in Germany in May 2008.