Beijing: Ahead of President Pranab Mukherjee's visit, China has rebutted India's assertion that France was included in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) without signing the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), saying France was a founder member of the elite group and so the issue of accepting its membership does not arise.
Beijing argued that the application of countries that have not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) should be treated as a whole, suggesting countries like Pakistan and Israel should also be considered along with India.
China also called for ‘in-depth’ talks to build consensus over India's admission into the NSG, days after Pakistan staked claim to join the 48-member grouping with purported backing from Beijing.
Asserting that all new members that join the NSG must sign Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said, "When France joined the NSG it was not a party to the NPT: France was the founder member of the NSG so the issue of acceptance to the NSG does not exist.”
Hua was responding to Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Vikas Swarup's comment last week that the ‘the NSG is an ad hoc export control regime and France, which was not an NPT member for some time, was a member of the NSG since it respected NSG's objectives’.
"The NSG is an important component of the non-proliferation regime is founded on the NPT. This is a long term consensus of the international community which was reaffirmed last year by the NPT review convention," Hua said.
“That is why the NSG has been taking NPT signatory status must status for new members,” Hua added.
The issue was expected to figure in the talks during President Pranab Mukherjee's visit to China from Tuesday. President Pranab Mukherjee would arrive in Chinese city of Guangzhou and later arrive in Beijing on May 25 during which he is scheduled to hold talks with Chinese leaders including his counterpart Xi Jinping.
Meanwhile, the US has backed India's claim to the membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the 48-nation bloc that trade nuclear supplies among themselves. The US support came amidst China's claim that it had the support of several NSG members that didn't want India to join the group.
"I'd point you back to what the President said during his visit to India in 2015, where he reaffirmed that the US view was that India meets missile technology control regime requirements and is ready for NSG membership," US State Department Spokesman John Kirby had told reporters in Washington last week.
Pakistan and China are reportedly lobbying against India on this and Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif's advisor on foreign affairs, recently said that China was helping Pakistan to block India's bid for NSG.
Apart from India, other UN members that have not signed the NPT are Pakistan, Israel and South Sudan.
With PTI Inputs
