India's bid for NSG: Member countries talking about alternate plan if China remains unmoved

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s possible meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the margins of the SCO summit a day before the NSG main plenary is crucial
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NEW DELHI: When China says India's bid for membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group is not on the plenary agenda, it isn't entirely inaccurate because that's exactly the consensus Beijing is trying to block. As a result, NSG members are even informally talking about an alternate plan if China remains unmoved. 

The impasse goes back to the technical meet in Vienna on June 9. The Indian application was accepted, which meant it technically passed the bar to be discussed for consideration at Seoul. It was at that point China raised the red flag saying NSG had to first arrive at a consensus on admitting countries which have not signed the Nonproliferation Treaty. 

The NSG has always worked by consensus, not voting. So China did block India's case from making it on the formal agenda but that did not stop 29 out of 48 countries from speaking on India's membership during that meet. Sources told ET that majority of them spoke in favour of India's membership. But with the Chinese digging their heels ,Argentina, the current chair of the NSG, along with some other countries have informally been discussing a Plan B. 
This involves setting up a time-bound working group that will lay down the benchmarks for non-NPT countries to join the grouping. The argument is that such an arrangement would allow the matter to at least come up on the agenda in Seoul. And from an Indian standpoint give it a definite timeframe. While variants of this model are being informally discussed, India is keen to seal the membership before the Obama presidency ends. 

With this in mind, India has pursued a 'peeling the onion' strategy. This meant systematic targeting of possible naysayers through its key backers. So if it leaned on us to bring countries like Mexico on board, it had Germany work on Switzerland and Australia on New Zealand. Gradually, numbers have dwindled with only a few doubtful cases. India's calculations hinge on peeling the onion in a way that China remains the last country standing. 

New DELHI, sources said, is working to take the situation to a point that Beijing will have to explain why it's opposing India's aspirations. And also why such a move could be a permanent setback to the India-China relationship. That's where Prime Minister Narendra Modi's possible meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the margins of the SCO summit a day before the NSG main plenary is crucial, added sources. 

China has until now avoided to specifically oppose India in the open. Always, sources said, it has tried to find supporters to show its actions are not unilateral. For this reason, South Block believes this high-stakes diplomacy will go down to the wire in Seoul. 

(Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com)

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