BEIJING: China is willing to discuss “possibilities” with India on its effort to become the member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), a senior Chinese diplomat said on Monday. The statement came ahead of the BRICS summit in Goa.
Last month, New Delhi stated that it had carried “substantive” discussions with Beijing on its effort to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group, comprising of 48-member countries that trade in nuclear technology.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi is campaigning continuously to make India, the member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group and to develop nuclear power plants in collaboration with Russia, the United States, and France, and to decrease India’s dependence on polluting fossil fuels.
Speaking to reporters ahead BRICS Summit in Goa, Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong told that new NSG members required to be granted by all current members of the group.
“These rules were not set by China,” Li said.
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“On the issue of joining the NSG, China and India have all along had very good communications, and (China) is willing to have further communications with the Indian side, to increase consensus,” he said.
“On this, China is willing to jointly explore all kinds of possibilities with India, but this must accord with the charter of the NSG, and certain rules need to be respected by all sides,” Li said, without elaborating.
The nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) recognises the five holding members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) – the United States, Russia, China, Britain, and France, as nuclear weapons powers but not others.
India has ruled out signing the NPT but announced that its history of non-proliferation enables it to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group. India was given an NSG waiver in 2008 that enables it to involve in nuclear commerce but withholds it of voting in the organisation’s decision-making.
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Supporters of India’s NSG bid, which includes the United States, believes that the agreement can be successfully moved despite the delay at the group’s annual meeting in Seoul in June.
The BRICS group of developing nations include Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.