India's final push for NSG membership bid

Prime Minister to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Uzbekistan to convince China on bid; foreign secretary flies to Seoul to lobby

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and top officials at South Block are bracing for a  hectic week of diplomacy, as they try to convince Beijing and some other countries to soften their opposition to India's entry to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar left for Seoul on Wednesday. The NSG plenary is meeting here over the next few days. It will try to push India's request for admittance in the 48-member nuclear material export control group. Apart from China, a handful of others are opposed to the entry of countries like India that aren't signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) into the group.

Jaishankar will brief NSG members about India's impeccable record in the nuclear sector and its adherence to the norms of the group, especially after it received a country- specific NSG waiver in 2008. Government sources advised the media  the process of membership was long drawn and they should refrain from speculating on the issue.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Tashkent, the Uzbekistan capital, on Thursday. He is expected to seek Chinese support for India's membership. Tashkent is hosting the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit.

This year, the SCO will start the process of admitting India and Pakistan as members to the regional grouping that has Russia, China and four of the Central Asian Republics as its members. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said her country supported India and Pakistan's accession to the SCO. China had been opposed  unless Pakistan was made a member as well.

In some good news for India, France on Wednesday asked NSG members to take a "positive" step on India's bid. The United States, Russia and United Kingdom have already asked NSG members to support India's bid. "France considers India's entry into the four multilateral export control regimes (NSG, MTCR, The Australia Group, The Wassenaar Arrangement) will bolster international efforts for combating proliferation," the french foreign ministry said in a statement.

In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told PTI that NSG members had three rounds of unofficial discussion on the entry of India and Pakistan into the grouping.

"China hopes to discuss further this issue and will play a constructive role in the discussions," she said. However, the spokesperson reiterated the Chinese position that entry of non-NPT signatories is not on the official agenda of the NSG plenary.

Apart from Jaishankar, senior South Block official Amandeep Singh Gill, in-charge of disarmament & international security division, is already in Seoul.