September 09, 2008	Tuesday	Ramazan 8, 1429

NEW DELHI, Sept 8: Foreign ministers of India and China met on Monday amid accusations by India’s main security official that Beijing tried to torpedo last week’s decision by the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group to lift a 34-year old ban on India for civil nuclear commerce.

Meanwhile, Indian newspapers highlighted comments by the Chinese delegation in Vienna, which they said insinuated that Beijing wants a similar NSG waiver to be given to Pakistan too.

Another report quoted Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi as saying ahead of his meeting with Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee that it was “also China’s hope that the NSG would equally address the aspirations of all parties for the peaceful use of nuclear power while adhering to the nuclear non-proliferation mechanism”.

The possibility that the Chinese comment may have been made to represent Iran’s perspective on the matter as well did not seem to get any hearing from the Indian media.

On his part, Mr Yang, after closed-door meetings with Indian leaders, denied that Beijing had tried to block the waiver at the NSG meeting.

“The Chinese side adopted a responsible and positive attitude... with regard to discussions at the NSG and now we see a consensus was reached,” he told reporters. “We didn’t do anything to block it. We played a constructive role,” he said.

There were mixed signals about how far India wanted to go to express its disappointment with Beijing for apparently dragging its feet on the India-specific waiver given by the NSG. Mr Mukherjee parried a question on China’s role, saying: “It is their internal matter, and in any case, every country has its right to express its sovereign will.” The impression is that India’s National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan was less circumspect in slamming China. There has been no reaction from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue.