India has bagged the crucial support from major NSG countries, including Switzerland, Mexico and United States, France, Russia and Britain for Its Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG) bid.
But China, a major NSG member, is still holding out, citing that India needs to sign the NPT.
According to reports, China has kept the condition that in case India joins the group, Pakistan should also get the opportunity.
Pakistan has also applied to become a member of the club, and is being backed by China. Beijing is keen to see that Islamabad gets on board, despite the latter’s poor non proliferation record.
According to reports, US has been trying to convince China to support India’s bid, and US Secretary of State John Kerry was in Beijing earlier this week to try and get around China’s reservations on supporting India.
Other countries opposing Indian membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) include New Zealand, Ireland, Turkey, South Africa and Austria, claims report.
The 48-nation NSG aims to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons by restricting the sale of items that can be used to make those arms.
The NSG had granted an exclusive waiver for India in 2008 to access civil nuclear technology after China reluctantly backed India’s case based on the Indo-US nuclear deal.
Now the NSG is set to take up India’s application for membership at an extraordinary plenary in Geneva on June 9-10. The group is to hold another meeting in Seoul on June 24.