The basis of India's international civil nuclear cooperation remains what is contained in the special exemption from the Nuclear Supplier Group (NSG) guidelines given on September 6, 2008, the Minister for External Affairs, Mr S.M. Krishna, told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. In a suo motu statement on ‘Nuclear Enrichment and Reprocessing Technology' the Minister said that the September 2008 decision is the “basis and overarching framework” that governs cooperation in civil nuclear matters between India and the NSG. “The issue is the full implementation of that understanding. This is what we expect and our major partners are committed to. We expect all NSG members to honour their commitments as reflected in the 2008 NSG Statement and our bilateral cooperation agreements,” Mr Krishna said. The statement was made after several MPs raised the issue of the adoption of new guidelines by the Nuclear Suppliers Group at its Plenary meeting in the Netherlands from June 23-24, 2011 relating to transfer of enrichment and reprocessing technologies. “The Guidelines of June 23-24, 2011 are a decision by the NSG. India is not a member of the NSG as yet and therefore not a party to this decision,” the Minister said. The Minister said that some of the country's partners including the US, France and Russia have clarified their positions. “The US Department of State, in a press statement, has stated that the Obama Administration fully supports the ‘clean' Nuclear Suppliers Group exception for India and speedy implementation of the US-India Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement,” the Minister said. Similarly, a communiqué issued by the French Ambassador here stated that NSG exemption “reflects the unique situation of India and constitutes a historical achievement. Therefore, in the French view, nothing in the existing and future guidelines shall be interpreted as detracting from that exemption or reducing the ambition of our bilateral cooperation”. The Minister added that the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman on July 14 stated that the NSG decision “does not affect in any way the September 2008 decision of the Group to unfreeze peaceful nuclear cooperation with India”.