Nuclear club

It has long been Chi’s strategy to keep India confined to South Asia as a regiol power. Beijing has done this by playing up Pakistan in intertiol fora at every opportunity, apart from swiftly exploiting any irritant that creeps up in India’s relations with other neighbors, notably Nepal and Myanmar. The latest such instance is the ongoing deliberations within the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) over India’s candidature. Harping on the fact that India has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Beijing has raised questions of ‘principle’ to block India’s entry into the 48-member bloc. Mindful of the easier access to nuclear technology and knowhow that NSG membership can provide to India, Chi is insisting that NPT is an ‘important standard’. What is more, it has raised a question on behalf of ‘other countries’— whether non-NPT members can join NSG. This is but an indirect reference to India, Pakistan, Israel and South Africa that have not signed the NPT as a discrimitory pact which protects the nuclear-haves. Chi has thus made its position clear — if India is to enter the NSG now, so must Pakistan, in short, ‘both or none’. Ironically, it is primarily Washington that is standing up for India in the NSG forum, despite the US bashing that a large section of India’s political establishment is so fond of at the slightest pretext. In protecting tiol interests with utter selfishness, ruthlessness and persistence, New Delhi needs to take a leaf out of Beijing’s book.

Top Headlines

No stories found.
Sentinel Assam
www.sentinelassam.com