New Delhi: In a last-ditch effort to press China to give its consent to India’s NSG entry application, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday “urged” Chinese President Xi Jinping to make a “fair and objective” assessment of India’s bid.

At their crucial 50-minute bilateral meeting in the Uzbek city of Tashkent, Mr Modi, while asking that China “contribute to the emerging consensus” in favour of India's admission to the NSG at Seoul, said that China should “judge” India’s case on its own merits. There was no official word on the Chinese reaction. But Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain, in his separate meeting with the Chinese President, opposed India’s entry, saying any “exception” in granting membership to the NSG will “disturb” strategic stability in South Asia. He reportedly made a case for Pakistan to join the 48-member NSG. Perhaps in an indication of things to come, President Xi Jinping told his Pakistani counterpart that Pakistan and China are “iron brothers” and that both nations enjoy an all-weather strategic cooperative partnership.