PM Modi to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping amidst India’s push for NSG membership

Indian PM Narendra Modi has left for Tashkent where he would be taking part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit; a greater agenda of the trip, however, would be his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, amidst Chin’s protest against India’s push to get into the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

The last few weeks have seen a string of high-profile Indo-China exchanges, with Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar visiting Beijing last week and currently being in Seoul for the NSG meeting.

Amongst the 48 members of the group, China is largely alone when it comes to opposing India's membership, saying that India is not a part of non-proliferation treaty (NPT), thus not being eligible for NSG entry. It added that in case rules are being changed for India, Pakistan needs to be treated equally.

India has major support for its entry, in the form of US that has not only urged members to back India, but has also revealed to news agency ANI how Pakistan continues to proliferate nuclear material to North Korea.

Talking of SCO meet, India has so far only attended these meetings as an observer, and is now set to sign the Memorandum of Obligations and other key documents so that it can be closer to full membership in the Eurasian political and economic forum.

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