Islamabad: Sartaz Aziz, adviser to Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif, has said that India will not be able to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group alone stressing that whenever this happens both New Delhi and Islamabad will join the elite group.
Winding up a debate in Pakistan's senate over Chabahar deal between India,Iran and Afghanistan and its impact on Pakistan, Aziz said “We have been successful in preventing India from gaining access to the NSG and I am hopeful that whenever it happens, we will both join it together and India will not be able to join the NSG alone.”
He also claimed that Pak government’s “active and successful foreign policy” had blocked India’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), Pakistan's Dawn reported.
Aziz further said that member states of the NSG agreed with Pakistan’s viewpoint during the last week’s meeting at Vienna (Austria) and expressed the hope that India would not be able to join the group when members would hold another meeting in Seoul later this month.
He also said that a number of countries, including Russia, Mexico, South Korea and New Zealand, and many countries had supported Islamabad’s viewpoint that there should be a criteria-based approach while deciding about inclusion of any country into the NSG.
Responding to concerns of senators over development of the Chabahar Port in Iran with the help of India, Mr Aziz said that Pakistan had already signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) for sister-port relations between the Chabahar and Gwadar Ports. Moreover, he said, a proposal to build a rail link between the two ports was also under consideration, the daily reported.
Earlier, Aziz has claimed that Pakistan had diplomatically engaged numerous countries over the criteria-based approach for the countries that are not signatories to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
"If the group forms such a uniform criteria, then Pakistan has stronger credentials for NSG membership than India," he told Dawn News.
Pakistan has bright chances of getting membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) on merit, he claimed.
"Our strategy was to apply after India did, after which we would have immediately followed. We have had our application in an advance state of readiness for the past three months for this purpose," Aziz said.
He claimed that Pakistan has gradually gathered support for the criteria-based approach.
Last week, I telephoned the foreign ministers of Russia, New Zealand and South Korea, who will in future head the NSG, and our viewpoint was that they should support the criteria- based approach and we have gathered support for it, China was already supporting it," Aziz said.
He expressed hope that due to "Pakistan's efforts and its strong credentials", if India gains entry into the 48-nation club, Pakistan will also not be left behind.
The US has been pushing for India's NSG membership while China has been reportedly backing Pakistan's bid to join the nuclear trading club.
India, though not a member, enjoys the benefits of membership under a 2008 exemption to NSG rules for its atomic cooperation deal with the US.
The NSG looks after critical issues relating to nuclear sector and its members are allowed to trade in and export nuclear technology. The NSG works under the principle of unanimity and even one nation's vote against a country could scuttle its bid.
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