The position adopted by China on Tuesday marked a shift from its assertion on Monday that India’s application to join the 48-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) was not on the agenda of the organisation’s plenary meeting in Seoul on June 23-24.
Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar too may travel to Seoul to push for India’s bid for NSG membership at the two-day plenary of the 48-nation grouping.
“The Foreign Secretary is watching the situation “very closely” and, depending on the “feedback” from the official-level meeting of NSG ahead of the crucial plenary on Thursday and Friday in the South Korean capital, he may travel to Seoul to give a ‘final push’,” the official said. The official-level session of NSG started on Monday. Jaishankar had visited China last week to pursue the matter with the Asian neighbour.
China, which was opposing India’s NSG membership bid, for the first time said the “door is open” for discussions on the issue but took a swipe at the US for backing India, saying it was one of those who made the rule against the entry of non-NPT countries into NSG.
Chinese Foreign Ministry, however, asked the 48-member NSG to “stay focussed” on whether the criteria should be changed on entry of non-NPT countries into the elite group. “I have not seen the US statement supporting India. But US is one of those who made the rule that non-NPT countries should not join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG),” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing.
Hua said while discussions are going on among the NSG members, the admission of new members is not listed in the current plenary meeting in Seoul. “The door is open. The room is there. We never said we are against who (a country).
We did not target any country, India or Pakistan. China for its part cares about NPT as criteria for admission of the new members into the NSG,” Hua said. Justifying China’s stand, Hua further said: “This is the core of the international non-proliferation. If the non-proliferation regime is changed how can we explain the Iranian nuclear treaty?
The main meeting of the NSG plenary on June 24, 2016 will happen a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi travels to Tashkent for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, which is also being attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping.