China intentionally blocked India’s membership to the 48-member Nuclear Group for geopolitical reasons.
New Delhi (Sputnik) — China's objection to India's NSG membership has more geopolitical connotations than the non-NPT issue.
The Indian and Chinese rivalry is known in South Asia and both do not let opportunities go to waste to prove their influence. China is also a close friend of India's arch rival Pakistan.
Certainly, by blocking India's NSG bid China wants to hamper their rise.
China wants to hinder India's uranium supply and also create hurdles to the access the latest nuclear technology by blocking India's membership. India's non-inclusion in the NSG will ultimately hamper the export of nuclear components by India. By opposing India, China has also snubbed the US who fully supported India's NSG membership bid. Becoming a member of the NSG, a block that governs civilian nuclear trade worldwide, would have granted India global acceptance as a legitimate nuclear power which China does not want.
If India recieves the NSG membership then it will be able to import civilian nuclear technology and fuels from the international market more conveniently, while saving its domestic nuclear materials for military use.
The major goal for India's NSG ambition is to obtain an edge over Pakistan in its nuclear capabilities. If India gets the membership first, the nuclear balance between India and Pakistan will be broken, something China will never accept.
"China has its own motives, Pakistan is one motive then China does not want India also come to the high table. So there are so many things involved in that. But India has done its best," Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, Prof K. V. Kesavan told Sputnik in an exclusive interview.
Kesavan further added that, "I think we have got to be tougher with the Chinese then they will understand. We have to be little stronger than we have been so far. We are generally nice towards China."
Certainly, India's most ambitious bid to become the world's newest power has failed due to China's geostrategic ambitions but India has also learned a diplomatic lesson.
This story first appeared on Sputnik & is reposted here with permission.