China on Monday said that India’s entry to NSG is more complicated now, and that it wanted a non-discriminatory solution to the NSG membership issue.

China’s Assistant Foreign Minister Li Huilai said that India’s bid for membership of the 48-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) “is more complicated what was imagined previously. China supports the NSG to have several consultations to reach a non-discriminatory and universally applicable solution to all the members of the NSG.”

Mr. Li said that both India and Pakistan will become full members of the grouping during the course of the Astana summit.

He said that a resolution would be passed “according status of membership to India and Pakistan”. With the inclusion of the two countries, the “geographic coverage (of the SCO) will be extended to South Asia, covering three-fifth of the Eurasian continent covering half the population of the world”.

New Delhi formally applied for NSG membership in May last year, but China has consistently blocked India’s bid, pointing to the need for devolving universally applicable membership criteria for all countries that have not signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), but had become nuclear weapon states.

The NSG controls the global exports of nuclear technology and material to ensure that atomic energy is used only for peaceful purposes.