Simran Sodhi
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 21
The signals coming from China today on India’s Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) membership pointed in two directions. One, that China wants to keep the emphasis on the criterion and on non-NPT members joining the elite group as a whole. Two, it wants to club India’s membership with that of Pakistan, absolving Islamabad of its role in the controversial AQ Khan affair.
Meanwhile, the US today reiterated its support for India’s membership. China hit back, pointing out that ‘the US is one of those who made the rule that non-NPT countries should not join the NSG.” For India, which has rushed its top officials from the Ministry of External Affairs to Seoul, the stakes are extremely high now.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has asked the 48-member group to “stay focused” on whether the criteria should be changed. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, talking to Indian mediapersons, said while discussions were on among the NSG members, the admission of new members was not listed in the current plenary meeting at Seoul.
“The door is open. The room is there. We never said we are against a country. We did not target any country, India or Pakistan,” she said. On the US backing India’s NSG bid, Hua said, “We care about rules. The US sets the rules.This is not an issue between China and India but (about) the pillar for the non-proliferation system,” she said.
The state-run Global Times wrote: “ While India strives for NSG inclusion, it prevents Pakistan from joining by insisting on the latter’s bad record of nuclear proliferation.” Blaming AQ Khan for the nuclear proliferation, the paper said that “illegal proliferation is not an official policy of the Pakistan Government.”

We’ve blocked India’s bid: Pak

• Islamabad: Pakistan has “successfully” blocked India’s bid to gain membership of the NSG, Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz told the Pakistan parliament on Tuesday. Pakistan had a strong case to gain NSG membership on merit, Aziz said in a statement. “We have been making successful efforts against India’s NSG membership,” he said, ahead of the key meeting of the NSG this week in Seou