NSG membership: Wait continues for India and Pakistan

Seoul, June 24 : Both India and Pakistan, it seems will have to wait for some more time to gain membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), as the 26th plenary meeting of the group held in Seoul, South Korea concluded today without any discussion on their applications.As of now it appears that the membership application of both countries will not be considered for discussion unless they sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which is the building block of the NSG.Chaired by Ambassador Song Young-wan of the Republic of Korea, the NSG held discussions on the issue of “Technical, Legal and Political Aspects of the Participation of non-NPT States in the NSG” and decided to continue its discussion on the matter.The group stated that Switzerland will assume the Chairmanship of the NSG from 2017 to 2018 and welcomed Switzerland’s plans to host the next Plenary.The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea, H.E. Yun Byung-se, welcomed the participating governments and reaffirmed his country’s support for all NSG activities.