Beijing: In a series of flip-flops over its stand on India’s membership bid to the Nuclear Suppliers Group, China today continued to make ambivalent statements on India's bid for NSG membership indicating that it was unrelenting in its opposition.
On the eve of NSG's plenary in Seoul, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that India's entry into the bloc was not on the agenda as New Delhi was not a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
"The meeting is only to deliberate on the entry application of countries that are state parties to the NPT. As for the entry of non-NPT countries, the group has never put that on its agenda,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement today.
"The NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group) has never put the entry application of non-NPT countries on its agenda. So it makes no sense to say that discussions are blocked," the statement added.
Clubbing India and Pakistan once again, the Ministry further said that members of the 48-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group have had three rounds of unofficial discussions on the membership of the two countries.
China is seeking to equate India with its impeccable non-proliferation record with that of Pakistan for which it is batting.
Meanwhile, India's Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar will be in Seoul tomorrow amid reports that breakthrough on India's entry is unlikely.
China is opposing Indian's entry into the 48-nation NSG saying it is not a signatory to the NPT. The NSG works on the principle of consensus and lets in a new member only if all existing members agree.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying also underlined the differences within NSG members, saying "parties are yet to see eye-to-eye on this issue".
Yesterday, Hua had said that the "door is open" for discussions over admitting non-NPT countries in the elite grouping and on it's part Beijing will play a constructive role in the discussions.
"The door is still open. There is always room for discussion. We never said we are against (any country). We did not target any country, India or Pakistan," Hua had said.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has claimed that it had successfully blocked India's bid for NSG membership, and China's clubbing of the two countries is seen as a ploy to block New Delhi.
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