Despite the United States government's decision to share civilian nuclear technology with India, Britain on Thursday said that its restrictions on transfer of such technology to New Delhi would continue till it signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
"The UK policy on the issue remains till India signs the NPT. We want all nuclear countries to adhere to the Treaty," an official spokesman said.
As far as Britain and its universities are concerned, India remains on an eleven-year-old 'red-flag' list of countries potential proliferators of weapons of mass destruction.
India's place on the list, alongside Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Libya and Israel means Indians were among 2,000 scientists security vetted in the last four years after they applied to British universities to do postgraduate or post-doctoral work in chemistry, microbiology and biotechnology.
238 of those applications were rejected, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said.
According to the UK's counter-proliferation department, the rationale is to prevent foreign scientists of suspect countries from taking courses which would help them acquire the knowledge necessary to assist with the production or manufacture (proliferation) of WMD within their home country and which might one day threaten the UK's security.
Under the joint statement issued by India and the US on Monday, New Delhi has agreed to fully separate its civil and military nuclear facilities and to place all the civil nuclear facilities under full IAEA safeguards.
