In a letter addressed to NSG chairman Rafael Grossi on 19 May, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Austria, Ayesha Riyaz, said the decision to seek membership in the group reflected Islamabad’s support for global efforts aimed at preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives Monday for a short visit to the United States, to meet President Obama and address Congress – a historic moment for a leader who was once banned from entering the United States. While attending a business meet in Geneva, Prime Minister Modi said both India and Switzerland share a commitment to reform worldwide institutions in tune with current global realities.
“I look forward to meeting President Pena Nieto on June 8 during my visit to Mexico, a privileged partner in the Latin American region”, PM Modi had said ahead of his five nation tour that also took him to Afghanistan, Qatar, Switzerland and the US.
Membership of the grouping will help India significantly expand its atomic energy sector. The issue is expected to figure in the plenary meeting of the NSG on June 9 in Vienna.
The additional secretary highlighted the factors, which placed Pakistan’s application for NSG membership on solid grounds. “India will have to work out the NSG issue with China through direct talks and not expect that USA can swing it on its own”, Dr. Baru said.
A day after India received the US’s backing for Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) membership, Pakistan stepped up its diplomatic outreach among members of the cartel and warned that country-specific exemptions could negatively impact strategic stability in South Asia.
“With respect to other possible new members of the NSG, Indian officials have stated that India would take a merit-based approach to such applications and would not be influenced by extraneous regional issues”, he wrote. China has been opposing India’s bid arguing that it was not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. And as Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan and Arka Biswas have illustrated in a recent working paper, India has made significant progress in harmonizing its Special Chemicals, Organisms, Materials, Equipment and Technology (SCOMET) export list with the control lists of the Australia Group and the Wassenaar Arrangement.
The NSG had granted an exclusive waiver for India in 2008 to access civil nuclear technology after China reluctantly backed India’s case based on the Indo-US nuclear deal.
In their talks, Modi and Nieto deliberated extensively on expanding cooperation in trade and investment. They will discuss climate change, a clean-energy partnership, and security and defense cooperation.
“We are now looking to move beyond a buyer-seller relationship, and into a long-term partnership”.
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“Information technology, energy, pharmaceuticals, and automotive industries are among key growth areas of our commercial linkages”.
