China supports Pakistan for NSG membership

BEIJING: China extended its support to Pakistan for its membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG)

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said, “China has noted Pakistan's aspirations for NSG membership. Pakistan has taken steps towards its mainstreaming into the global non-proliferation regime. We support Pakistan's engagement with the NSG.”

To a question, Chunying said that the NSG is an important component of the international non-proliferation regime. It is the long-standing consensus of the international community that the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) is the cornerstone of the regime.

She said the recently concluded Ninth NPT Review Conference has reaffirmed this consensus. On account of this, the NSG has so far regarded the status of the NPT state as a crucial standard to accept new member state.

The spokesperson went on to say that in fact, besides Pakistan, there are other non NPT states who have expressed similar aspirations. This raises an issue to the international community, that is, whether non NPT states are in the position to join the NSG.

China believes that this issue deserves thorough discussion among NSG member states in accordance with relevant rules, thus to make a decision by consensus, she said and added that, “We wish to strengthen communication and coordination with Pakistan.”