India promises to be neutral on Pak NSG bid

India has signalled that it would not take a hard-line stand against Pakistan’s bid to enter the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), after getting the cartel’s membership.

New Delhi conveyed to Washington DC that if the NSG accepted India as a member, its position on Pakistan’s plea for admission into the cartel would not be influenced by troubled ties between the two neighbours. The United States, in turn, conveyed to other members of the 48-nation cartel, ostensibly to blunt the opposition to plea for India’s membership, sources told DH.

India’s plea for the NSG membership is strongly opposed by China. The US has been lobbying for India and of late stepped up its effort to convince the members of the cartel to vote in favour of India.

The NSG controls the global nuclear trade. The rules require that each of its members must be a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Neither India nor Pakistan signed the treaty.

China has been arguing that if the NSG dilutes its existing criteria for membership to admit India, it should also open up its doors for Pakistan or other “non-NPT” countries.

India submitted its application for membership to the NSG on May 12. Egged on by China, Pakistan applied on May 19 and has since been urging the NSG countries “to adopt objective and non-discriminatory criteria for the membership of non-NPT states”.

India, apparently on US advice, has not been overtly arguing against Pakistan’s plea for membership to the suppliers group. India has rather been seeking support of the members of the cartel on the basis of its own “impeccable non-proliferation track-record”.

The US, according to sources in New Delhi, formally conveyed to the NSG members that India, after being admitted into the cartel, would take “a merit-based approach” on future applications by other nations seeking membership of the club.

Without directly referring to Pakistan, the US also conveyed to the NSG members that India’s position on pleas by other nations for admission to the club would “not be influenced by extraneous regional issues”.

A US-led investigation that had 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. “India, on the contrary, has an impeccable and internationally recognised non-proliferation track-record,” said the official.

Notwithstanding the role of the infamous “A Q Khan network” of Pakistan in proliferation of nuclear technology in Iran, North Korea and Libya in the past, Washington, last month, softened its stand on Islamabad’s bid to get a berth in the nuclear export control regime.