China is worried that India might side with the United States at the G-20 summit if Washington raises the South China Sea dispute and the ruling by an international court that went against China.
So a worried Beijing has now stated via an editorial in the state-run Xinhua that the door of NSG is “not tightly” closed on New Delhi’s face.
In the same voice the editorial urged New Delhi to “fully comprehend” Beijing’s concerns over the South China Sea.
The editorial was published just ahead of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to India.
Xinhua highlighted that India and China are partners and not rivals and should “work together to keep their disagreements in check”.
But the editorial claimed that India has wrongly accused China of derailing New Delhi’s NSG ambitions.
“So far, there is no precedent for a non-Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) signatory to become an NSG member. Many inside the body that monitors the global flow of nuclear materials insist prudence in handing a membership card to any non-treaty party,” the editorial read.
Beijing has been insisting on the NPT signature to let a country become a member of the 48-member NSG yet is backing Pakistan’s bid despite it being a non-NPT country.
The purpose of the editorial was to urge India not to side with countries who might go against China at the G-20 over the South China Sea dispute, which is most likely to come up due to the presence of United States in the summit.
A verdict at The Hague shot down China’s claims over the entire SCS area following a case filed by Philippines.
Besides Manila, Washington, Canberra and Tokyo want Beijing to honour the verdict, but a defiant China continues to assert its supremacy in the SCS and refuses to accept the verdict calling it illegal.
