Hope to become member of NSG by end of 2016: Sushma Swaraj

Sushma Swaraj the current Minister of External Affairs of India stated that the country is trying its best to become a member Nuclear Suppliers Group – NSG, while addressing on two years completion of NDA government today.

Swaraj said that, “We hope to become member of NSG by end of the year. China doesn’t oppose India’s membership, China speaks about procedures.

On Pakistan, Swaraj added, ”we wouldn’t like to oppose anyone’s entry to the nuke club. But we would like every country’s application to be considered on merit.”

What is NSG?

NSG is a group of nuclear supplier countries that seek to protect nuclear escalation by controlling the export of materials, equipment and technology that can be used to manufacture nuclear weapons.

India’s situation till now in NSG :

India has been seeking to secure a membership of the group and in 2008 also received a one-time waiver, after agreeing to abide by any rules that NSG may make in the future. Being inside would mean participating in that rule-making.

In January 2015, US president Barrack Obama said that India was ready for NSG membership. During that period, China's Foreign Ministry offered conditional support for Indian membership in the NSG, but also called for "prudence and caution" over the issue.

Interestingly, after receiving support from maximum number members, China opposed India’s membership in 2016. According to a report in Business Line, it was  observed on a note that China was not pleased by the idea of granting India a one-time waiver, and had to fall in line only under the US pressure.

Pakistan too applied for membership in 2016 in order to counter possible Indian inclusion into NSG. Even if Pakistan din’t get much vote it had China’s support to enter.

Possibilities of getting membership:

There are chances of India getting membership by this year. Possibilities are there that China may trade-off opposition in return for its own membership into the Missile Technology Control Regime.

"It is possible China may now seek some kind of bargain, whereby it is given entry to the MTCR in return for letting India get into the NSG," Praveen Swami said in the Indian Express newspaper.

Though considering the Beijing’s statements, looks like China will only agree if Pakistan is also sanctioned the NSG membership. However, nobody will let it happen, seeing the country’s terrible proliferation track record.

As per New York Times report, if India gets the membership, it will block Pakistan forever. It observed that Pakistan once provided nuclear technology to North Korea and Iran, and giving India a membership and denying it to Pakistan will give “new incentives to misbehave”.

At present there are 48 countries holding membership in NSG. India has supports of United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Switzerland, Japan, Turkey, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa and Austria.