Do not give political colour to India’s bid for nuke tech: FS

Calling for respecting each other’s legitimate aspirations, India on Friday said China should not give a political colour to its efforts to access civilian nuclear technology, a reference to Beijing’s opposition to its NSG bid.

In his address to India China Think-Tanks Forum, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar also pitched for bilateral cooperation in dealing with “fundamentalist terrorism”, expressing dismay over the two countries not being able to come together on the issue at critical international forums.

His remarks are seen as a reference to China opposing India’s move to get Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar designated as a global terrorist by the United Nations.

Jaishankar also said, “At a time of change, we should obviously pay great attention to strategic communication. This could help avoid misunderstanding and promote greater trust and cooperation.” 

Without mentioning India’s NSG bid, Jaishankar said there was a need for broad-basing the nuclear technology control group and stressed on deeper Indo-China cooperation on major global issues like implementation of the Paris climate agreement.

“In India’s case, predictable access to civilian nuclear energy technology is key. The broad-basing of the nuclear technology control group is also helpful to a more representative international order.

“Keeping in mind this solidarity of major developing states, it is important that China view this as a developmental aspiration and not give it a political colouring,” he said.