NSG plenary Ends

      The annual plenary session of the Nuclear Suppliers Group ended on Friday without taking any decision on India’s application for membership. While the 48-member grouping held two lengthy closed-door sessions on the subject of new memberships, several countries expressed concerns over the entry of members who aren’t signatories to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), that India has refused to sign.
      Through the session, a team led by Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar monitored developments in Seoul, meeting with various countries to try and effect a favourable outcome.
       Eventually, though, say diplomats, between China’s attempts to block any discussion, countries like Brazil and Turkey calling for a “criteria-based” process to be put in place first, and others like Austria, Ireland, New Zealand and Switzerland raising the NPT question, India’s chances were scuttled. Government officials held that atleast 32 countries had made positive interventions on India’s behalf, but the NSG’s actions are governed by consensus and not by majority.
     Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar, even as they waited for a positive message from the meeting between Mr. Modi and Mr. Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Tashkent. However, while India stated its case to China, there was no return statement from the Chinese government on its stand.
     Shortly after, the Special session began in Seoul, and even though India had received vocal support in intervention from at least 32 countries during the day, including US, Japan, France, Australia, Germany, Canada, Hungary, and host South Korea, it became equally clear that several countries were holding out on the question of how to proceed forward for all Non-NPT countries, without making a special exception for India .This issue makes politics to Congress and Arvind Kejriwal