India's NSG membership: Turkey relentlessly backs Pak, New Zealand softens stance on India

Voicing concerns over India's run for NSG membership, China today said If India succeeds in entering the elite grouping, this will strike off the nuclear balance between India and Pakistan. The statement comes after New Zealand also seems to be softening its stance on India’s NSG membership.

It is noteworthy that Turkey continues to back Pakistan insisting that applications of both the countries India and Pakistan be considered simultaneously. Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz has thanked Turkey for its principled position on the NSG issue.

If reports from Vienna where the NSG met last week are to be believed Turkey was among those countries which had opposed India's membership on the grounds that it had not signed Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

China has been quite vocal of its opposition to India’s joining of the NSG club.  Where it has been against India’s bid, China also makes it clear that it could support India's inclusion in the nuclear club if it played by the rules.

In an article by Fu Xiaoqiang, research fellow with the state-run think tank China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations raised his concerns,  "The major goal for India's NSG ambition is to obtain an edge over Islamabad in nuclear capabilities. Once New Delhi gets the membership first, the nuclear balance between India and Pakistan will be broken.”

"Becoming a member of the NSG, a bloc that governs civilian nuclear trade worldwide, will grant India global acceptance as a legitimate nuclear power," said the article.

Though John Kerry’s efforts asking NSG member countries not to block India’s consensus for the membership seems to be working out in the right direction. A few days ago, Aziz had also stressed that Pakistan’s credentials are stronger than India’s for NSG membership.