BackIndia moving closer to NSG membership, acknowledges Chinese media
India's entry into NSG will shake the nuclear balance in South Asia, says Chinese newspaper
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New Delhi: India is inching closer to getting the membership of the exclusive Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), but if India is admitted, it will “shake the nuclear balance in South Asia and cast a cloud over peace and stability in the entire Asia Pacific," an article in Chinese media said.
The article in the state-run Global Times, written by Fu Xiaoqiang, a research fellow with state-run think tank China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said, “The major goal for India’s NSG ambition is to obtain an edge over Islamabad in nuclear capabilities."
Once India gets membership first, “the nuclear balance between India and Pakistan will be broken. As a result, Pakistan’s strategic interests will be threatened, which will in turn shake the strategic balance in South Asia, and even cast a cloud over peace and stability in the entire Asia-Pacific region," Fu said.
This is the second article in the newspaper on India’s NSG membership in three days.
On Tuesday, another article in the Global Times warned that India’s entry into the bloc will touch a “raw nerve" in Pakistan and accelerate the nuclear arms race in South Asia between India and Pakistan, besides putting in jeopardy China’s national interests.
India presented its application to join the NSG on 12 May; it was taken up for consideration on 9-10 June in Vienna. But the meeting remained inconclusive, with China holding out on the ground that India is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The NSG works on the basis of consensus and, therefore, all members have to agree on admission of new members.
The plenary session of the NSG is now set to discuss the issue when it meets in Seoul on 23-24 June.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who visited five countries during 4-9 June, managed to secure expressions of support from Switzerland, Mexico and the US. These were three of the five nations that Modi visited.
Laying out China’s position and objections vis-a-vis India’s candidature, Fu said, “As a country that has signed neither the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) nor the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), India is not yet qualified for accession into the NSG... As a crucial defender of the international system against nuclear proliferation, China does not wish to see the political and legal foundation of global nuclear security to be challenged by any party who does not abide by rules."
Countries that are developing nuclear technology without the acceptance of the international community would perhaps be better off within the non-proliferation mechanism, Fu noted.
But before that, “a fair and just principle must be made through common consensus of all current members of the NSG, rather than US and India’s reckless pushing at the cost of rule-breaking," he said.
On its part, Beijing welcomed India playing a role as a major power in global governance.
“As long as all NSG members reach a consensus over how a non-NPT member could join the NSG, and India promises to comply with stipulations over the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons while sticking to its policy of independence and self-reliance, China could support New Delhi’s path toward the club," Fu said.
India garnering support from countries like Switzerland and Mexico was possible because Washington had started to treat New Delhi as part of the “US alliance", Fu noted.
The US recognised New Delhi as a “major defense partner" during PM Modi’s 7-8 June visit, the article noted, adding that the import of this was that “the White House has given India the treatment as a US military ally".
In the recent past, the US has been bending the rules to back India’s nuclear projects, the article said, adding that this was happening against “the backdrop of Washington’s accelerated pace of promoting its pivot to the Asia-Pacific region." And in this context, the US will be “highly likely to keep supporting New Delhi’s nuclear ambitions, in order to make it a stronger power to contain China."
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