A US-led push for India to join a club of countries controlling access to sensitive nuclear technology made some headway yesterday as several opponents appeared more willing to work towards a compromise, but China remained defiant.
The 48-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group aims to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons by restricting the sale of items that can be used to make those arms.
It was set up in response to India’s first nuclear test in 1974.
India already enjoys most of the benefits of membership under a 2008 exemption to NSG rules granted to support its nuclear co-operation deal with Washington, even though India has developed atomic weapons and never signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the main global arms control pact.
But China yesterday maintained its position that the Non-Proliferation Treaty is central to the NSG, diplomats said.
The handful of other nations resisting India’s admission to the group, including South Africa, New Zealand and Turkey, softened their stance somewhat, opening the door to a process under which non-NPT states such as India might join, diplomats said.
“There’s movement, including towards a process, but we’d have to see what that process would look like,” one diplomat said after the closed-door talks yesterday aimed at preparing for an annual NSG plenary meeting in Seoul later this month.
Opponents argue that granting India membership would further undermine efforts to prevent proliferation.
It would also infuriate Pakistan, an ally of China’s, which has responded to India’s membership bid with one of its own.
Pakistan joining would be unacceptable to many, given its track record.
The father of its nuclear weapons programme ran an illicit network for years that sold nuclear secrets to countries including North Korea and Iran.
“By bringing India on board, it’s a slap in the face of the entire non-proliferation regime,” a diplomatic source from a country resisting India’s bid said on condition of anonymity.
Washington has been pressuring hold-outs, and yesterday’s meeting was a chance to see how strong opposition is.
US Secretary of State John Kerry wrote to members asking them “not to block consensus on Indian admission to the NSG” in a letter.
Most of the hold-outs argue that if India is to be admitted, it should be under criteria that apply equally to all states rather than under a “tailor-made” solution for a US ally.
Mexico’s president said on Wednesday his country now backs India’s membership bid.
“Mexico recognises India’s interest in joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group,” President Enrique Pena Nieto said after talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“As a country we have a positive and constructive backing for this.”
India is also poised to join the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) after talks this week between Modi and Obama.
Mexico supported India’s membership because of Modi’s “commitment to the agenda of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation,” Pena Nieto said.
“I thank President Pena Nieto for his positive and constructive support for India’s membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group,” Modi said at the end of a whirlwind week of global diplomacy in which he also won support from Switzerland.
Mexico’s backing represents a historic policy shift for the country, which has held a firm position on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation for decades.