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India confident of entering nuclear group

Last Updated 27 November 2015, 19:16 IST

Even as Pakistan and China stepped up efforts to block India’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), New Delhi is confident that the 48-nation cartel controlling global business of atomic fuel, equipment and technology will admit it as a member soon, taking into account its “impeccable non-proliferation track record”.

A day after Pakistan warned the NSG against creating exception to grant membership to India, senior officials here said that New Delhi would continue its efforts to enter the bloc and a breakthrough could be expected soon.

New Delhi is of the view that the track record of Pakistan and India in proliferation of nuclear technology can never be compared. “I understand all the NSG members are well aware of Pakistan’s track record in the area of proliferation,” a senior official said on Friday.

A US-led investigation had in 2004 revealed that the infamous “A Q Khan network” of Pakistan had clandestinely supplied equipment and technology required for making nuclear weapons to at least three countries – Iran, North Korea and Libya.

The spokesman of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Pakistan government, Qazi Khalilullah, said in Islamabad on Thursday that grant of exclusive NSG membership to India as an exception, on account of political and commercial considerations, would adversely affect the credibility of non-proliferation regime.

Islamabad conveyed to the NSG that India’s entry into the bloc would also “bear negative implications for regional peace and security”. Pakistan is understood to have conveyed to the NSG that the cartel should adopt “an objective, equitable, non-discriminatory approach for admitting new members”.

The “NSG’s relationship with India” was discussed in the bloc’s annual plenary meeting held at Bariloche in Argentina last June, but parleys did not result in any significant headway for New Delhi’s entry into the multilateral regime for control of nuclear exports around the world.

New Delhi’s bid was supported by Washington with the US pointing out that India was now “ready for membership” of the NSG. China, however, continued to insist on a ‘consensus’ within the bloc on the issue of admissibility of “non-NPT nations” (countries that did not sign the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty or NPT) into the bloc and even linked India’s bid for membership of the cartel with that of Pakistan.

The NSG guidelines prohibit its members from entering into nuke ties with countries that had not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT. Neither India nor Pakistan has signed the NPT. Washington, however, helped New Delhi secure a waiver from the NSG in 2008. The waiver, which came in form of a statement from the NSG, cleared the hurdle for the US and India to ink the civil nuclear cooperation agreement. 

According to a statement issued by the NSG, the members of the bloc shared “information on all aspects of the 2008 Statement on Civil Nuclear Cooperation with India” during the plenary meeting in Bariloche from June 3 to 5.

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(Published 27 November 2015, 19:16 IST)

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