NEW DELHI: Formalizing a new position that seeks to block India’s quest for membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, China has said NSG is linked to the NPT, indicating India could be eligible for NSG membership only if it signed the NPT. Speaking to journalists in Delhi, a senior Chinese diplomat denied it was a “bilateral issue”.
“As a member of UN security council, we are the watchdog of the world, we must ensure the rules. And we must also think about others, not just India who want an exception to the rules,” he said.
The US, he said, is asking for an exception for India. “China would never block India’s entry into any world body but what about the efficiency of the regime?”
“China,” he said, “joined the NPT in 1992. The treaty has some problems and Indians believe there are double standards. But it only recognizes nuclear weapons states as those that tested weapons before 1967. China did not make this rule, western powers did. We just have to maintain the rules.”
This is China’s newest objection to India’s NSG bid, slightly different from its earlier stand asking for a criteria-based exception. As India has stepped up its diplomacy on the NSG membership China has also stepped up its opposition. Indian officials deny any link between NPT and NSG.
With the US once again openly endorsing the Indian membership to the NSG last week, India has begun preparations for the plenary, scheduled to be held in Korea in June. India has been preparing for its accession for years now. Since its NSG waiver in 2008, India has engaged many members of the NSG to give them all a closer look into India’s nuclear system, its non-proliferation practices etc.
When President Pranab Mukherjee travels to China next week, he will engage the Chinese leadership on India’s membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). In fact, sources said India would be stepping up its conversations with China on the issue as the NSG plenary, scheduled for June, draws near. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will make a big push at the highest levels to get the US to make good on its commitment to get India into the NSG.
Chinese officials here also admitted that “outside influence” in their restive province of Xinjiang was making religious schools “more and more extreme. “There is a political agenda to split China to form East Turkestan, which gets sympathy from western countries. These kind of jihadists are very brutal, they are not human beings. Many Uighur leaders believe that. They misuse Quran for violence.”
China, he stressed makes “no difference between India and Pakistan. But you (India) need strong evidence. It is not a bilateral issue, it is at the UN. He is not Indian citizen. India doesn’t talk to Pakistan, but calling it a sponsor of terrorism is too strong.”
