China the ‘outlier’ on India’s NSG membership: US

TIL Desk/World/Washington-The outgoing Obama Administration has lashed out at China for blocking India from becoming a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group by describing the Communist giant as an “outlier” in its effort to bring New Delhi on board the elite grouping. “Clearly there is one outlier that needs to be addressed and that is China,” Nisha Desai Biswal, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, told in an interview.

The US statement comes a week ahead of the Obama Administration passing on the baton to the Trump Administration. Officials say it is because of the Chinese resistance that India could not become a member of NSG, where all decisions are taken on the basis of consensus.

“The (US) President (Barack Obama) has been very clear and unequivocal that he believes that India has met the criteria for NSG and that the United States supports India’s entry that India is ready and India should be brought into the NSG,” she said.

“We worked very closely with India to support India’s application into the NSG, but we also recognise that there continue to be some concerns, some reservations that some of the members of the NSG have expressed that need to be worked through,” she said.