Seoul: It was an open secret that China was dead against India’s entry into the NSG but the way Chinese diplomats are articulating their anti-India stand has surprised everybody.
Sticking to its stand of not allowing India’s entry into NSG unless and until New Delhi signs the Nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), China today went one step further and said that the global non-proliferation order will collapse if India joined the grouping without signing the NPT.
China pointed out that India is not the only country which needs nuclear energy to generate clean power and reminded that many other countries had similar needs.
"If exceptions are allowed here or there on the question of NPT, the international non-proliferation order will collapse altogether," Wang Qun, Director General of the Department of Arms Control of China's Foreign Ministry, said in a statement here.
"NPT is a must. In other words, the applicant state shall be party to the NPT.This is a rule not set by China but reaffirmed by the international community. NPT represents the cornerstone of the entire non-proliferation regime," Wang added.
Wang’s comments came after the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) held a second day of its plenary in the South Korean capital where India's membership was taken up without any consensus emerging among the member states.
(With IANS inputs)
