India must engage China directly to overcome Beijing’s opposition to New Delhi’s membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
“The Chinese have not indicated till now that they are willing to look beyond the ‘principled position’ that they have cited while suggesting that they will not favour entry of non-NPT members like India into the NSG. The main issue is what will China gain by helping India enter into NSG,” said Professor Alka Acharya of the JNU, highlighting the short-term considerations of China in this case.
The NSG issue, Professor Acharya says, is now part of the overall bunch of bilateral issues between India and China and cannot be seen in isolation. “It is not clear how or what can China gain in exchange of supporting India’s entry into NSG as we do not compromise on any of the strategic issues including the border. There is a need for greater direct dialogue to convince China for India’s quest of a seat at the NSG,” she said.
Professor Rajesh Rajagopalan of the Centre for International Politics and Disarmament in JNU said China might support India if it realised that the NPT regime might spiral out of control if responsible nuclear powers were not allowed to partner the new nuclear age
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