Indian bid to join NSG fails

Indian bid to join NSG fails

Dr. Jassim Taqui

As expected, the Indian bid to join the high table of the world nuclear powers failed. Indi lobbied for eight years for a seat at the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

In a special meeting of the NSG in Seoul today, five countries opposed  its entry including China, Norway, New Zealand, South Africa,  and Brazil.

China convinced NSG that India should be admitted in the group only if it signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty(CTBT).

Beijing prevailed despite the fact that 4 permanent members of the UN Security Council (The United States, Russian Federation, Britain and France) supported India.

The NSG vote has highlighted the duel policy of the Obama administration over NPT.

Earlier, Obama granted India a waiver, which was aimed at giving it access to the global commercial nuclear trade and technology. Both US and India worked hard to help India to assert itself as a legitimate nuclear power state.

The other objective of the US administration is to build up India as a regional nuclear superpower to contain the economic and military rise of China and to de-nuclearize Pakistan.

To achieve this objective, the Rand, which is a think tank of the Pentagon prepared a blue print to seize the nuclear assets of Pakistan or to disintegrate it or both.

However, with the start of CPEC and Pakistan’s signing of Memorandum of Obligation (MoO) during 16^th Summit of SCO, which is held at Ashkhabad on 24^thJune, 2016, the Obama game stands foiled.

Obama lobbied for Indian entry to NSG despite the fact that NSG was founded in response to India’s 1974 nuclear test. NSG has worked for decades to prevent the sharing of technology that could contribute to further spread of nuclear weapons.

India has not been able to explode the hydrogen bomb. Indications suggest that the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi might contemplating a thermonuclear test. This is the reason, he is resisting signing NPT and CTBT.

The decision of NSG is historic. It should pave the way to convince both India and Pakistan to sign NPT and CTBT.