Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold talks with his New Zealand counterpart John Key today during which he is likely to seek Wellington's support for India's entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
Key, accompanied by a high-level business and education delegation, arrived on a three-day India visit yesterday. He was given a ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapati Bhawan this morning where he was greeted by PM Modi.
“Many issues of primary interest to India including India's admission to NSG; look forward to productive discussion in time I am here,” Key told reporters here.
New Zealand was one of the countries that took the stand at the last NSG plenary in South Korea in June that no exception can be made in the case of India, a non-NPT country, while considering its membership bid of the elite group that regulates trade in atomic material. At the plenary, despite strong US support, China had blocked India's bid on the ground that it was a not a signatory to the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty.
Ahead of Key's visit, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup had said that India will tell New Zealand it had all the credentials to become a member of the NSG and that it would strengthen the NPT regime.
"We believe that we have all the credentials to be a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group and we hope that at the end of the day the 48 member grouping will see the logic of India s entry because it will only strengthen the global non- proliferation regime," Swarup had said.
The visiting dignitary will also call on President Pranab Mukherjee during his stay. He will also visit Kochi on a short tour to the new Cochin International Terminal and oversee the work undertaken by New Zealand company, Glidepath.
He had last visited India in 2011.
