No change in stand on India's entry into Nuclear Suppliers Group: China

Beijing: Marring India's chances of entering the 48-member elite club at its crucial meeting next month, China said on Monday that there was no change in its stance on admission of non-NPT states into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

"China's position on the non-NPT members' participation in the NSG has not changed," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing.

She was responding to a question about the chances of India's admission into the grouping during the next month's plenary session expected to take place in the Swiss capital, Bern.

"We support the NSG group following the mandate of the 2016 Seoul plenary session and following building consensus as well as inter-governmental process is open and transparent to deal with the relevant issue in a two-step approach," Hua said, as per PTI.

Meanwhile, official sources say, India has renewed its efforts to become a member of the group by engaging with all member countries.

India had officially applied for membership of the grouping which controls export of nuclear materials, equipment and technology in May last year.

After India applied for membership in the NSG, Pakistan also submitted its membership bid with Beijing's backing.

While India is backed by the US and a number of western countries, China maintained that new members should sign the non-proliferation treaty (NPT).

After a series of meetings between officials of India and China, Beijing backed a two-step approach which stipulates that the NSG members first need to arrive at a set of principles for the admission of non-NPT states into the NSG and then move forward with the discussions on specific cases.

India is not a signatory to the NPT.

India says it will not sign the NPT as it regards it discriminatory.

(With PTI inputs)