India's NSG bid: Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar leaves for Seoul

New Delhi, June 22: In a bid to make a last pitch ahead of the Nuclear Suppliers Group meet Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar has left for Seoul. He will make a last minute push at Seoul for India' entry into the NSG.

There were indications yesterday that the foreign secretary would fly in esrly to Seoul to make a last minute push. India is making every effort to be part of the NSG.

Assessments are being made and the idea is to be realistic and understand every hurdle that may come India's way, an official in New Delhi informed OneIndia.

The meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on June 23 too will be a crucial one.

The two are scheduled to meet on June 23 on the sidelines of the SCO summit at Tashkent and Modi will bring up the NSG issue. Indian officials are confident, but also say that they are keeping the approach realistic. It can go down to the wire too and we are making all efforts, officials working on the issue point out.

Apart from China, there are chances of opposition from countries such as Ireland, New Zealand and Austria. These nations have always expressed reservations of countries which are non-NPT members being part of the NSG.

On Monday the US called on the NSG members to back India. However China said that discussions should also focus on whether the rules can be changed. The Chinese also said that it was the US which came up with rule in the first place which states that non-NPT countries cannot be part of the NSG.

OneIndia News