NSG decision forward-looking, momentous: PM

New Delhi, Sep 6 : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday described the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) waiver that brings India back into the global nuclear fold after over three decades as a forward-looking and momentous decision.

"This is a forward-looking and momentous decision. It marks the end of India's decades long isolation from the nuclear mainstream and of the technology denial regime," the prime minister said in a statement shortly after the 45-nation NSG agreed to rewrite its guidelines to resume global nuclear trade with New Delhi.

"We welcome the decision earlier today of the Nuclear Suppliers Group to adjust its guidelines to enable full civil nuclear cooperation with India.

"It is a recognition of India's impeccable non-proliferation credentials and its status as a state with advanced nuclear technology. It will give an impetus to India's pursuit of environmentally sustainable economic growth," he said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh singled out US President George W. Bush who he spoke to on telephone thanking him for his role in taking forward the civil nuclear initiative.

In a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), both leaders expressed their belief that mutually beneficial relations between India and the United States were in the interest of their peoples.

Both countries, the statement said, were on a path of steady consolidation and multifaceted expansion, to which both leaders reiterated their commitment.

"I thank the United States and other member countries of the Nuclear Suppliers Group for the role they have played in ensuring this outcome. The opening of full civil nuclear cooperation between India and the international community will be good for India and for the world," said Manmohan Singh.

"We look forward to establishing a mutually beneficial partnership with friendly countries in an area which is important for both global energy security as well as to meet the challenge of climate change."

The NSG's decision to grant India a "clean waiver" from its existing rules, which forbid nuclear trade with a country which has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), came after three days of intense diplomacy at its Vienna meeting by the US in the nuclear cartel that controls the global flow of nuclear fuel and technologies.