Already India looks set for membership at the MTCR regime and now looks for support for membership at Wassenaar Agreement and Australia Group.
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“I thank President Pena Nieto for his positive and constructive support for India’s membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group”, Modi said at the end of a whirlwind week of global diplomacy in which he also won support from Switzerland.
So far, United States has supported India’s entry into the NSG, though China is still against it. China believes that India can not be a part of this because India has yet not signed the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty.
Other countries reportedly opposing Indian membership include New Zealand, Ireland, Turkey, South Africa and Austria.
“Mexico recognises India’s interest in joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group”, Pena Nieto said at his Los Pinos residence. Earlier Modi also won support of Switzerland on the issue. It had granted an exclusive waiver to India in the year 2008 after China reluctantly backed India’s case in the Indo-US nuclear deal.
The NSG works under the principle of unanimity and even one country’s vote against India will scuttle India’s bid. China, however, says India can become a member only if Pakistan’s bid is accepted.
At a press conference here, the Prime Minister’s Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz maintained that Pakistan aims to solve all disputes and grievances with India on the negotiating table.
China is leading the opposition to New Delhi’s entry to the NSG club, said a few diplomats of member nations after a closed-door meeting on Thursday.
“China is extremely crucial and has a sensitive relationship with India but has never been so belligerent in the past 29 years ever since late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi broke the ice with China in 1987”, he said.
Although a final decision on India’s NSG membership is not expected before the Group’s plenary in Seoul on June 20, diplomats in Vienna said that Washington was pressuring the hold-outs and Thursday’s meeting was a chance to see how strong the opposition was.
India and Pakistan have both applied for membership, but both have strikes against them. Irrespective of the end-result in terms of NSG membership, India’s bilateral relations with these countries are bound to achieve greater heights.
The PM, meanwhile, is likely to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on June 23-24, where India and Pakistan are likely to be admitted to the six-member grouping.
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Modi received US President Barack Obama’s support for admission to the NSG when he visited Washington before his brief trip to Mexico.
