China snubs, Foreign Secy Seoul-bound

Simran Sodhi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 20

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar may soon fly to Seoul ahead of the crucial Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) meeting scheduled for June 24 where India’s membership is likely to come up for discussion. However, China today said India’s membership was not on the agenda of the plenary meet of the NSG. 

The statement was in sharp contrast to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s ‘optimism’ yesterday that India was hopeful of convincing China and becoming an NSG member by the year-end.

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Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying today said: “The inclusion of non-NPT members has never been a topic on the agenda of NSG meetings. In Seoul this year, there is no such topic.”

It was also made clear that India might be looking for a credential-based as opposed to a criterion-based approach. China insisted that “NSG should discuss the entry issue of non-NPT countries as a whole instead of specific non-NPT countries joining”.

Jaishankar’s hush-hush visit to China last week coupled with PM Narendra Modi’s scheduled meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Tashkent later this week highlights the importance being attached to the NSG berth.