Pakistan admits stalling India's NSG bid; says will not back down from 'principled stand' on Kashmir

New Delhi: It seems that Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who claims to be a friend of his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi has pushed a dagger in the latter's back by stalling India's Nuclear Supplier Group (NSG) bid.

This sensational revelation has come out in public on Monday via Sartaj Aziz, Adviser to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Foreign Affairs.

Addressing a group of editors, journalists and anchors at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad, Pak's top diplomat Aziz said, "Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif personally wrote letters to 17 prime ministers of different countries to keep India away from getting NSG membership, which is on record," as per India Today.

However, Aziz did not revealed why Pakistan is so apprehensive about India to be a member of NSG.

Pak not to back down from 'principled stand' on Kashmir

He further said, “Sharif also wrote in the letter that Pakistan will not abandon the calls of Kashmirs or the issue of Kashmir.”

"Pakistan wants to have peaceful relations with India but will not back down from its principled stand over Kashmir," Aziz said.

Aziz further said that Kashmir will be "on top of the agenda" whenever the dialogue is held with India.

He alos said that India was trying to dictate Pakistan on Kashmir which was not acceptable but he added that Islamabad was against any tension on the Line of Control (LoC).

The India-Pakistan bilateral dialogue ground to a halt after January's terror attack on the Pathankot airbase that was carried out by militants from the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammad.

Pak govet categorises Taliban into 'good' and 'bad' groups

On the issue of the Afghan Taliban, Aziz acknowledged that the Pakistani government categorises Taliban into 'good' and 'bad' groups and that the government is trying to push 'good Taliban groups' for resumption of dialogue.

"In the prevailing situation, the Afghan Taliban do not seem interested in resuming talks," he said.

The advisor added that the government has taken decisive action against all Taliban groups in tribal areas.

"Consultations with security establishment is a normal thing as the United States (too) consult its security establishment in foreign policy matters,"he added.

The NSG meeting last week failed to achieve consensus over the entry of India as some countries including China objected that the being non-NPT signatory, India was not eligible for the membership.

Pakistan has been trumpeting it as success but at the same time it was seldom mentioned what happened to its own application for the membership. Pakistan tried to sell the idea that a criteria-based non-discriminatory approach was needed to admit new members.

However, earlier in the day, India joined the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) as a full member and said its entry would be mutually beneficial to enhance global non-proliferation norms.

"India has joined the MTCR this morning...India's entry into the regime as its thirty-fifth member would be mutually beneficial in the furtherance of international non-proliferation objectives," External Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

India's entry into MTCR comes days after it failed to get NSG membership due to stiff opposition from China and a few other countries.

Significantly, China, which stonewalled India's entry into the 48-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) at the just- concluded Seoul plenary, is not a member of MTCR.

Since its civil nuclear deal with the US, India has been trying to get into export control regimes like NSG, MTCR, the Australia Group and the Wassenaar Arrangement that regulate the conventional, nuclear, biological and chemicals weapons and technologies.

MTCR membership will now enable India to buy high-end missile technology and also enhance its joint ventures with Russia.

The aim of the MTCR is to restrict the proliferation of missiles, complete rocket systems, unmanned air vehicles and related technology for those systems capable of carrying a 500 kilogramme payload for at least 300 kilometres, as well as systems intended for the delivery of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

(With Agency inputs)