Indian Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said that China is open to India joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), but its opinion on relevant details is different from that of New Delhi.
NEW DELHI (Sputnik) – China is open to India joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), but its opinion on relevant details is different from that of New Delhi, Indian Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said Wednesday following a round of talks between the two countries.
"On the NSG issue the Chinese side underlined that they were open to India’s application for membership but they had their view of procedures and processes and these were somewhat different from where we are at the moment and where we think most of the group is at the moment," Jaishankar said, as quoted in the statement issued by the Indian Ministry of the External Affairs.
According to the foreign secretary, India and China also had a fruitful discussion on developmental projects in Afghanistan.
The two sides discussed trade and economic collaboration as well, with India outlining its concerns about the trade deficit, and agreed to set up an early session of the Joint Economic Group to address the problem.
India and China also exchanged opinions on the cooperation and expanding projects within BRICS, which, apart from these two states, includes Russia, Brazil and South Africa.
Indian support for NSG membership has been explicitly supported by Russia, France, the United Kingdom, the United States and many other countries.
The NSG was founded in the seventies and aims to prevent nuclear proliferation.
This story first appeared on Sputnik & is reposted here with permission.