India on Thursday told China that it was not seeking Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) membership as a gift from the US or for that, from any country, but on the basis of its non-proliferation track record.
Responding to China’s statement to the US that NSG membership should not be a farewell gift by the outgoing Obama administrations, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup said: “Our views on India’s membership of the NSG are clear and I have been stated on many occasions before. India is not seeking NSG membership as a gift. India is seeking it on its non-proliferation record. I of course cannot speak for other applicants.”
China has been rooting for NSG membership for Pakistan whose application is pending before the NSG committee. Signing Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) is one of the essentials for NSG membership and both India and Pakistan are not signatories of the agreement. However, India has an edge over Pakistan due to a 2008 waiver that it has from the NSG.
US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Nisha Desai Biswal, had recently termed China as the only country opposing India’s membership application in the 48-member grouping. “Clearly there is one outlier that needs to be addressed and that is China,” Biswal had said.
In reaction to Biswal’s statement, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said, “I just want to point out that NSG membership shall not be some kind of (a) farewell gift for countries to give to each other.”
China claims it is advocating a two-step approach for admission of countries who have not signed the NPT and it first wants to find a solution that is applicable to the admission of all non-NPT countries followed by discussions on admitting specific nations.