NEW DELHI: With all efforts to impress upon China to support India’s candidature for the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) coming to naught, Foreign Secretary Dr. S. Jaishankar said the entry bid should be seen as “developmental aspiration” and Beijing should dissuade from giving it a “political colouring”.
The Foreign Secretary was speaking at a dinner hosted as part of the India-China Think Tank Forum. Dr. Jaishankar also touched upon China’s obstruction to get Jaish-e Mohammad Chief Masood Azhar in the proscribed list of UN designated terrorists under its 1267 Sanction Regime and the expansion of the UN Security Council’s permanent membership.
Contending that both the countries should be supporting each other on implementation of our Paris Agreement commitments, Jaishankar said: “In India’s case, predictable access to civilian nuclear energy technology is key. The broad basing of the nuclear technology control group is also helpful to a more representative international order. Keeping in mind this solidarity of major developing states, it is important that China view this as a developmental aspiration and not give it a political colouring.”
The two countries, the Foreign Secretary said, had their areas of interests and influence largely confined to their own immediate region. But with the growth in their capacities, “they have started to intersect more, including in comparatively distant areas”. And for larger global good he insisted that the two countries should pay great attention to strategic communication to avoid “misunderstanding and promote greater trust and cooperation”.
“As diverse and pluralistic societies, we both face threats from fundamentalist terrorism. Yet, we do not seem to be able to cooperate as effectively we should in some critical international forums dealing with this subject. Even on sovereignty, surely there can be more sensitivity and understanding,” Jaishankar said in his oblique reference to Beijing’s “technical hold” on proscribing of Azhar, a move seen to be done at the behest of Pakistan where the JeM Chief is said to be hiding.
Seeking broad basing of international forums like the UNSC the Foreign Secretary said that “our actions in respect of the reform of the UNSC are in contrast to our approaches to usher in a more equitable international economic order”.