India insists signing treaty not needed for NSG membership

India on Friday rejected China’s contention that it must sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to get membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), saying that France was included in the elite group without signing the treaty.

“I think there is some confusion here. Even the NPT allows civil nuclear cooperation with non-NPT countries. If there is a connection, it is between the NSG and IAEA safeguards and with export 

controls,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said. 

“NSG members have to respect safeguards and export controls, nuclear supplies have to be in accordance with the NSG guidelines. The NSG is an ad hoc export control regime and France, which was not an NPT member for some time, was a member of the NSG since it respected NSG’s objectives,” he said.

China has opposed India’s bid to get NSG membership on the ground that it was yet to sign the NPT. Its Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang had said all multilateral non-proliferation export control regime, including the NSG, have regarded NPT as an important standard for the expansion of the NSG.