Norway, Austria, Brazil and Japan have all warned that their support for India with the IAEA does not mean that they will not express any reservations to the NSG. New Zealand, a member of the NSG but not of the IAEA Board of Governors, warned that it did not take its support for granted. [32] Ireland, which initiated the non-proliferation process in 1958 and first signed it in 1968, has questioned India`s nuclear agreement with the United States,[107] Russia, a major potential nuclear supplier to India, has expressed reservations about the transfer of enrichment and reprocessing technology to India. [108] China argued that the agreement was “a blow to the international non-proliferation regime”. [109] New Zealand stated that it wanted certain conditions to be included in the waiver: the exception when India conducts nuclear tests, India, which signs the Additional Protocol of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the limitation of the volume of technology that can be given to India and which could relate to nuclear weapons. [110] Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries have proposed similar changes. [111] The nuclear deal was rejected by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who said the U.S. would “make a dangerous deal with India”[112] The Trump administration began formal negotiations in February 2018 for a 123-nation deal with Saudi Arabia, although negotiations have not been concluded since 2012. The negotiations are led by Energy Minister Rick Perry. Although some officials, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have stated that the Government of Saudi Arabia is pressing to commit to waiting for nuclear fuel capacity and to adopt the IAEA Additional Protocol, reports suggest that Saudi Arabia has opposed these restrictions. Fears of nuclear cooperation with Saudi Arabia grew after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said last year that Saudi Arabia would develop nuclear weapons if Iran did, and after the assassination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018. Former Indian president and Indian scientist A.
P. J. Abdul Kalam also supported the agreement and noted that New Delhi could break its “voluntary moratorium” on the continuation of nuclear tests in the “greatest national interest.” [145] However, analyst M K Bhadrakumar discouraged. He said that the consensus on GSS had been reached on the “basis” of Pranab Mukherjee`s commitment to India`s voluntary moratorium on nuclear testing, and India therefore made a “multilateral commitment” that included it in the “scope of the CTBT and the NPT”. [146] It was speculated that the Indo-US agreement would be signed on October 4, 2008, when U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in India. The agreement is expected to be tinged by Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee and the United States.