Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday urged Chinese President Xi Jinping in Tashkent to support India’s bid for membership of Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), there was no breakthrough on the issue at the meeting of the 48-nation grouping in Seoul.
Preceding the 2-day plenary that started on Thursday night, China had repeatedly said that India’s membership was not on the agenda and is said to have made every effort to prevent any discussion on India’s bid. However, Japan is believed to have raised India’s case in the morning session after which it was agreed that the matter would be taken up at the special post-dinner meeting.
Indian official sources said that China was joined by Austria, Ireland and Brazil among other countries which questioned as to how a country like India which had not signed the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) can be admitted to the grouping. Essentially their opposition was couched in principles and processes.
Brazil’s objections are said to have surprised the Indian diplomats who pointed out that it is a member of the 5-nation BRICS grouping. Besides India and Russia, the grouping includes Russia, China and South Africa. Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, who is camping here, had earlier met the Brazilian delegation. Officials said that discussions were inconclusive and that it would only be clear before the end of the plenary on Friday.
Hours before the NSG began discussion on India’s application for membership in Seoul, Modi urged Xi Jinping to make a fair and objective assessment of India’s application for the NSG membership.
Clearly, Modi’s urgings had not changed the Chinese position, but what transpires on Friday, the final day of the two-day plenary, remains to be seen.
Indian diplomats, led by Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, are in Seoul to press India’s case, although they are not the participants at the plenary in the absence of India’s membership. He has met a number of delegation leaders in this regard. About 300 participants from 48 member countries are attending the plenary which was preceded by official-level session that began on June 20.
According to External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup, Modi said India’s case should be judged on its own merits and China should contribute to an emerging consensus in the Seoul meeting. The official added that most of the time of the Modi-Xi meeting on Thursday, which lasted for about 50 minutes, was devoted to the NSG issue.
The meeting took place between the two leaders on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. It comes against the backdrop of stiff Chinese opposition to India’s entry into the NSG, which looks after critical issues relating to the nuclear sector, including trade and export of nuclear technology.
However, when asked about China’s response, Swarup refused to comment, saying, “You know, it is a complex and delicate process. We are waiting (to see) what kind of news comes from Seoul. I will not make any more comments on this.”
Asked if India talked about the need to delink India and Pakistan’s NSG membership bids, Swarup said, “You have heard that Prime Minister told Xi Jinping that China must make a fair and objective assessment of India’s application on its own merits and China should join the emerging consensus in Seoul.”
While making some right noises of playing a “constructive” role on the issue of memberships of India and Pakistan, China has been unrelenting in its opposition, harping on the need to have an criteria for non-NPT countries like India and clubbing India’s case with that of Pakistan for which it is batting.
Earlier, Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain met Xi on the sidelines of the summit and thanked China for supporting Pakistan’s case for NSG membership. Hussain told Xi that any “exception” in granting membership to the NSG will “disturb” strategic stability in South Asia.
Prior to his departure from New Delhi to Tashkent, Modi said India looks forward to a fruitful outcome from its engagement at the SCO summit. India’s entry into SCO as a full member will provide it with an opportunity to have extended cooperation with member countries in areas of Defence, security and counter-terrorism.
“President Xi welcomed India’s accession to the SCO and said it would strengthen it. Prime Minister Modi thanked President Xi for China’s support to India’s membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation,” Swarup said.
The SCO had set the ball rolling to make India a member of the bloc during its summit in Ufa in July last year when administrative hurdles were cleared to grant membership to India, Pakistan and Iran. The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the Presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India, Iran and Pakistan were admitted as observers at the 2005 Astana Summit.
Meanwhile, on landing in Tashkent, Modi was received by Uzbek Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev at the airport. Mirziyoyev mentioned India’s leadership role in the global economy which is still in the midst of uncertainty and spoke of the love for India among Uzbeks at large. Modi said that the moment he touched the soil of Uzbekistan he thought of lal Bahadur Shastri.
Modi later met Uzbek President Islam Karimov and thanked him for support to India’s membership of the SCO. Modi conveyed India’s decision to extend e-tourist visa to Uzbekistan and to organize a Festival of India and an Indian Trade Exhibition in Uzbekistan to mark 25 years of Uzbekistan’s independence and 25th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations with India.