China persists in its reservation about India joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the informal cartel of 48 countries that frames rules for international trade in nuclear materials, when it has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which this country regards as discriminatory. The Indian objection to the NPT is that it permits the declared five nuclear weapons powers (the US, Russia, Britain, France and China) which made the bomb by 1968 to produce atomic weapons but bars other countries. After signing a bilateral agreement with the US in 2008, India was able to obtain a one-time waiver from the NSG in procuring internationally-sourced nuclear reactors for its civilian energy programme.
The fact that India has an outstanding record in the matter of non-proliferation of nuclear materials and missile components, unlike some of the P-5 themselves, clinched the argument for India, and now the US has agreed to push India’s case for NSG membership. But this does not impress China, which continues to argue a technical case — that only NPT signatories can be in the NSG. NSG members decide on entry of new members only through consensus. A Chinese official spokesman said on Saturday that, unlike the impression created, India’s special case was not discussed at an informal NSG meeting in Vienna last week.
Beijing says that the minimum criteria for admitting new members should be discussed at NSG’s Seoul meeting later this month. This, in effect, is a dismissal of US secretary of state John Kerry’s earlier appeal to China not to block a consensus emerging in India’s favour. India made its application for admission to NSG on May 12. Since then Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been energetically appealing to NSG members to let India in. He dropped by in Switzerland and Mexico recently and was able to persuade these countries to give up their objections. India’s cause has been helped by the American stance.
The US has brought India into a tighter geopolitical embrace and also hopes to gain commercially if India is permitted to freely trade in nuclear wares. China’s “all-weather friend” Pakistan insists that it be admitted to NSG if India is. China has developed a greater politico-economic interest in Pakistan in recent years and also desires to keep India down. Thus, Beijing agreeing to an Indian NSG membership right away seems not too likely. New Delhi will have to work on an appropriate give-and-take with it, and this could have a Pakistan and Afghanistan dimension.
