The government said in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that it was engaging with Beijing to iron out differences over India’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
The government said in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that it was engaging with Beijing to iron out differences over India’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). It, however, emphasised that New Delhi will never sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). India had earlier blamed China for creating “procedural hurdles” in India’s entry bid.
Responding to supplementaries during Question Hour in the Lok Sabha, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said China had raised questions over how a country which had not signed the NPT could become a member of the NSG.
“But we are engaging with it. We have not stopped efforts. If someone says no once, it does not mean he won’t agree at all,” she said.
Asserting that India has a “clear-cut” policy on NPT, she said the government will “never sign NPT” but will continue to fulfil its commitments made when it got the waiver in 2008.
She rejected the charge that India had created a lot of “hype” ahead of the NSG meet in Seoul. “We have been taught to make serious efforts to achieve things. No hype was created when we submitted our application for the membership of the NSG on May 12. We did it with low fanfare,” she said.
She scoffed at suggestions by NCP’s Supriya Sule that the denial of NSG membership was a “huge diplomatic snub”. Asserting that Indian diplomacy has made its mark, she said earlier people used to ask whether India can make it to the NSG. “Now when will India become a member is the question being asked,” she said.
On the benefits of getting NSG membership, she said India will then become part of rule-making. “We are rule-takers, not rule-makers,” she said, recalling a 2011 decision of the NSG not to transfer sensitive enrichment and reprocessing technology to non-NPT states. “The decision was against us. Had we been inside (a member), we would not have let this happen,” she said.
In a clear setback to its efforts to join the 48-nation grouping, the NSG plenary held in South Korea had last month decided against accepting India’s membership application after China and some other countries opposed the entry of a non-NPT signatory into the NSG.
