KAZAKHSTAN: DEMARCHE ON PROPOSALS TO ENABLE CIVIL

C O N F I D E N T I A L ALMATY 003629 SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/CACEN (J. MUDGE),EUR/PRA (J. CONLON),NP/RA (C. EVANS) E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/06/2015 TAGS: PREL KNNP PARM KZ POLITICAL SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN: DEMARCHE ON PROPOSALS TO ENABLE CIVIL NUCLEAR COOPERATION WITH INDIA BY THE NUCLEAR SUPPLIERS' GROUP REF: A. STATE 166864 ¶B. ALMATY 3454 Classified By: Ambassador John Ordway, reasons 1.4 (B) and (D). ¶1. (SBU) In a September 27 meeting with Foreign Minister Tokayev, Ambassador delivered Ref A demarche outlining U.S. support of India's pursuit of civilian nuclear energy in exchange for a stronger non-proliferation regime. The United States, he continued, would like to raise this further with the Nuclear Suppliers Group in October. ¶2. (SBU) Tokayev responded that he would brief the Kazakhstani Ambassador in Geneva, without further comment. ¶3. (C) As reported Ref B, in a separate September 27 meeting Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Vladimir Shkolnik questioned how providing nuclear fuel to India for civilian use would serve nonproliferation goals. Any external fuel supplied for civilian purposes would free up an equivalent amount of domestically produced fuel for military purposes, thus undermining our nonproliferation goals. He noted that Kazakhstan has in the past refused to sell India uranium for that exact reason. Shkolnik said that he would ask the head of Kazakhstan's nuclear regulatory agency, Timur Zhantikin, to discuss this issue with U.S. experts at the IAEA in October. ORDWAY NNNN