NEW DELHI (AP) India said Sunday that it was confident of winning China’s support for US -backed efforts for its membership in a group of 48 nations controlling access to sensitive nuclear technology.
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The opinion of NSG member countries was divided not only about India’s inclusion, but also on the inclusion of all those who have not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters at a foreign ministry briefing in Beijing, according to reports.
Indian Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj said India’s misunderstanding surfaced with Nepal previous year had already ended with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s visit to New Delhi.
Meanwhile, China’s state-run tabloid Global Times on Tuesday sought to pair India’s bid for membership in the NSG with Pakistan, by absolving Islamabad of any role in the controversial A.Q. Khan affair.
China has been strongly opposing India’s membership at the premier club arguing that it was not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). On the contrary, they want that the “NSG should discuss the entry issue of non-NPT countries as a whole instead of specific non-NPT countries joining”.
The US has backed India and asked various NSG members to support New Delhi’s bid.
Swaraj said India was confident of getting an NSG membership this year. She said she had taken up the issue both bilaterally with her Russian and Chinese counterparts and also in the trilateral meeting (as RIR had reported).
Modi may meet Xi during which he is expected to raise the issue of India’s NSG membership but whether the discussions will lead to break in the logjam is a moot point. The discussions on India’s membership will start at the expert-level meeting on June 21-22, which will precede the plenary session, sources said.
The Indian foreign minister also said India had decided, with the help of state governments and cabinet ministers, to reach out to nearly all countries in the world by the end of 2016. ” I think a consensus is developing, and I do not see that any country will go against it, and This time we will get entry into NSG, ” she said, adding that she had personally spoken with 23 of the 48 countries of the NSG. “India is not a part of MTCR … there are processes to be followed for its imminent entry”. Responding to questions from journalists at an annual press conference in the Indian capital city, New Delhi, on Sunday, Swaraj said that the neighbourhood policy was still a top priority of the Modi government. She said as far as entry of Pakistan is concerned, India, being a non-member of the NSG, can not comment on its entry.
“The NSG entry is crucial for India’s energy policy”.
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The main meeting of the NSG Plenary on June 24 comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to Tashkent for SCO Summit, which is also being attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping. “India has strong credentials to become a member of the NSG”. “So, we are urging all the nations to support our definition on terrorism”, she added. She added that India has put forth its concerns to China which had blocked a ban on Jaish-e-Muhammad chief Masood Azhar in the United Nations, preventing him from being put on the United Nations terror list.
