Do not give political colour to India's bid for nuke tech: Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar

NEW DELHI: Calling for respecting each other's legitimate aspirations, India today said China should not give a political colour to New Delhi's efforts to access civilian nuclear technology, in reference to Beijing's opposition to its NSG bid.

In his address to India China Think-Tanks Forum, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar also pitched for bilateral cooperation in dealing with " fundamentalist terrorism", expressing dismay over the two countries not being able to come together on the issue at critical international forums.

His remarks are seen as a reference to China opposing India's move to get Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar designated as a global terrorist by the United Nations.

Jaishankar also said, "At a time of change, we should obviously pay great attention to strategic communication. This could help avoid misunderstanding and promote greater trust and cooperation."

Without mentioning India's NSG bid, Jaishankar said there was a need for broad-basing the nuclear technology control group and stressed on deeper Indo-China cooperation on major global issues like implementation of the Paris climate agreement.

"In India's case, predictable access to civilian nuclear energy technology is key. The broad-basing of the nuclear technology control group is also helpful to a more representative international order.

"Keeping in mind this solidarity of major developing states, it is important that China view this as a developmental aspiration and not give it a political colouring," he said.

Seeking deeper bilateral engagement, he said "Let us at least respect each other's strong sense of independence and legitimate aspirations while seeking accommodation and building trust."

Talking about threat of terrorism, he said "As diverse and pluralistic societies, we both face threats from fundamentalist terrorism. Yet, we do not seem to be able to cooperate as effectively we should in some critical international forums dealing with this subject."