China wall, Swiss backstab: Few reasons on why India's NSG bid failed in Seoul

Despite tremendous efforts right from the level of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the official ranks of the Ministry of External Affairs, India’s mission to enter the Nuclear Suppliers Group at the Seoul plenary session has failed to materialise. Thanks to an adamant China, who showed the rule book citing Non-Proliferation Treaty as a prerequisite, the Indian endeavour had to end without success. Hope still exists for India in next year’s Switzerland plenary session, but here is a post-portem of why the Seoul mission was a disappointment:

Last moment U-turn from Switzerland cost India dearly

While it was expected that barring China, rest of the member-states will rally behind India, after the United States urged them to support our candidature, t he biggest shock, however, came from Switzerland . During PM Modi’s recent trip to the country, he was assured of its total support at the NSG.

China’s continued opposition at NSG A stubborn China continued to raise the NPT bogey to dissuade members from supporting India citing that New Delhi is not a signatory to the NPT. This is one of the foremost criteria to enter NSG. China exploited this to its advantage and scuttled India’s bid for not being an NPT signatory. The Economic Times quoted Wan Qun as saying, " “if exceptions are allowed here or there on the question of NPT, the international non-proliferation will collapse altogether”.

Not just China, many joined the fray to oppose India

In a major diplomatic failure, not just China and Switzerland but also countries like Brazil, Turkey, Austria, Ireland and New Zealand opposed India, as reported by  The Indian Express . The opposition from Brazil however came as a surprise as India is also a member of BRICS, of which the South American nation is a part of. Brazil too referred to the non-NPT signatory clause.

Pakistan-China nexus wrecked India’s chances

While reports suggest that Pakistan’s bid was not even discussed at the late night special plenary session convened to discuss accession of non-NPT countries, it did collude with China to damage India’s chances.The fact that Pakistan applied for membership just after India did was always going to be a tricky issue. Soon after PM Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday at Tashkent, Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain also meet the Chinese president. President Hussain reportedly told President Xi  that any exception to India will disturb regional stability.

China, a strategic ally of Islamabad, cleverly used Pakistan to raise the issue of India’s NPT status. It urged that both South Asian countries must be treated on par and any exception to New Delhi must also be extended to Islamabad .

China’s own geo-strategic game hindered India’s bid China aspires to be the next superpower and India is its only serious competitor to claim that position. Naturally, India’s entry into the elite group of nuclear traders could have changed the geo-political balance in Asia . So China’s opposition was a foregone conclusion. That the United States, the world’s largest economy and China’s rival, backed India in the NSG made matters worse.

Despite, the MEA saying that only one country — China — opposing India at the meet, reports suggest that the anti-India group is actually much larger. At the end, it was a combination of geo-political considerations, India’s non-NPT signatory status and diplomatic flip-flops that torpedoed New Delhi’s prospects at Seoul this year.