China may have blocked India’s bid to gain the membership of the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), but this may not be the end of the story for New Delhi. The NSG might again meet at the end of this year to take up the process for allowing non-NPT (Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty) signatories into the 48-nation bloc. This will provide another chance to India to press its claims.
The Chinese-led a ginger group of half-a-dozen NSG members blocked India’s attempt to enter the club last Friday in Seoul. While Russia, the US, Australia, Canada, France and several other powerful nations backed India’s claim, the outcome remained disappointed for India, which failed to breach the “China wall.” China insisted that countries which have not signed the NPT should not be allowed entry into the NSG. India is not a signatory to the NPT.
PTI quoted diplomatic sources saying that at the suggestion of Mexico, it has now been decided that another meeting of NSG should be held before the end of the year to consider the criteria for allowing non-NPT signatories like India into the group. Normally, the next meeting of NSG would have been held sometime next year.
Sources said that Mexico’s suggestion was also opposed by China but it found support from a large number of countries, including the US. A panel for informal consultations on India’s membership has also been set up by the NSG and it will be headed by Argentine Ambassador Rafael Grossi.
Grossi’s appointment came even as a top US official said that the NSG session in Seoul had ended with a “path forward” for India’s acceptance as a member. “We are confident that we have got a path forward by the end of this year. It needs some work. But we are confident that India would be a full member of the (NSG) regime by the end of the year,” the Obama Administration official told PTI in Washington.
China was unrelenting in thwarting India’s NSG bid despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting in Tashkent on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit to support India’s case on its merits. An upset India later accused “one country”, a clear reference to China, of persistently creating procedural hurdles during the discussions on its application.
Even on Sunday, MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup once again targeted China. “Some countries did raise procedure-related issues but only one country opposed India’s membership. It persistently raised procedural hurdles and as a result of which no result could be arrived at,” he told a TV channel.
Swarup said Seoul was not the end of the road for India. “There are some processes which take longer, I’d evaluate the NSG membership process in that category. I won’t use the word ‘failure’, but certainly yes, we did not get the expected results,” he said.
Swarup said, “We will keep impressing upon China that mutual accommodation of interests, concerns and priorities is necessary to move forward bilateral ties.”
His comments assume significance in the backdrop of Chinese Foreign Ministry’s assertion that Beijing’s opposition at NSG, which is a multi-lateral platform, will not impact the India-China ties adversely.