Prime Minister Narendra Modi shakes hands with Switzerland’s President Johann Schneider-Ammann before a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.
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“India is really a legacy issue for Obama”, said C. Uday Bhaskar, director of the Society for Policy Studies in New Delhi.
India recently joined the Hague Code of Conduct (HCoC) against Ballistic Missile Proliferation, a voluntary, legally non-binding worldwide confidence building and transparency measure, which seeks to prevent the proliferation of ballistic missiles that are capable of delivering weapons of mass destruction, which complements MTCR.
The countries reached a historic agreement on civil nuclear cooperation in 2008.
Currently, there are 34 countries who are members of the MTCR, many of whom are key manufacturers of missiles in the world. At least three other European countries and Mexico, all members of the group, view the NPT as the cornerstone of the global non-proliferation regime.
The Prime Minister proceeded to Washington on the fourth leg of his five nation visit.
Membership into MTCR is a huge boost for India’s ability to procure this capability.
Now one of the country’s famous daily paper, The New York Times, in its latest editorial, has challenged the very credentials of India for the NSG membership terming it as unmerited. In 2009, New Delhi started discussions on its membership with members of prestigious Group and its various forums.
Modi will travel to the USA and then to Mexico before returning to India.
“Yes, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc is aware of India’s interest in Predator-series Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA)”, Vivek Lall, chief executive of the U.S. and International Strategic Development of “General Atomics”, the largest privately-held American defence company which designs and manufactures the world’s famous Predator drones, had told PTI last December.
The 49-member NSG is concerned with reducing nuclear proliferation by controlling the export and re-transfer of materials that may be applicable to nuclear weapon development and by improving safeguards and protection on existing materials.
In this regard, he also mentioned about India launching the e-Tourist Visa facility earlier this year for Swiss nationals.
Analysts in the United States believe that India’s NSG application is in a precarious position for several reasons, chief among them being China’s assertion that if the NSG countries make an exception for India, they should do the same for Pakistan, even though Islamabad has been caught selling nuclear weapons secrets to Libya and was named and shamed globally.
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In last week of April, India stepped up its efforts for getting the membership by submitting papers, called the “adherence to NSG” documents, to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
