This will be the first visit of Mukherjee to China as President though he has visited the country a number of times in different capacities. The last Presidential visit to China was by Pratibha Patil in 2010.
China's state media on Tuesday defended Pakistan's nuclear record, saying it was A Q Khan who was responsible for atomic proliferation which was not backed by the government and argued that any exemption to India for Nuclear Suppliers Group entry should also be given to Pakistan.
Foreign Secretary F Jaishankar rushed to Seoul ahead of the crucial plenary meet even as China said that India's bid was not on the agenda.
"India is supposed to get only uranium for its nuclear programme to expand. Simply for this, so much compromising... is uncalled for," he said.
The landmark civil nuclear deal sealed on Friday with Japan is strikingly similar to the agreements India has with the US and some other countries but contains some added features on safety and security, reflecting Japan's concerns on the issue.
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India, along with the United States and Pakistan, has voted against a provision in a United nations resolution calling on to 'promptly' accede to the Non-Proliferation Treaty as non-nuclear-weapon nation 'without conditions' and to place all its nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.
"The recent election in Pakistan, as well as the normalising of US-Pakistan relations, are necessary but not sufficient conditions for the regularising of India-Pakistan relations," noted American scholar Stephen P Cohen has said.
Immediate NSG membership will not help India realise its nuclear ambitions any faster. It could have easily left the process take its own course, instead of running a high-stakes campaign to get in, says B S Raghavan.
Mukherjee said Prime Minister Narendra Nodi and Chinese President Xi Jinping Would be meeting soon on the margins of G-20 summit scheduled to be held in China later this year.
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon on Thursday asked Iran to build "international confidence" in its nuclear programme by fully complying with the global obligations under NPT and cooperating with IAEA, shortly after Tehran slammed the UNSC for being "unjust and completely undemocratic".
The visit comes ahead of the NSG plenary meeting in Seoul on June 23 and 24.
Pakistan's High Commissioner to Australia, Abdul Malik Abdullah, said if Australia is willing to export uranium to India then it should sell it to Pakistan as well.
Pune FC played out a 2-2 draw with Nay Pyi Taw FC in their AFC Cup 2014 Group-H opener at the Shree Shivchhatrapati Sports Complex, in Balewadi, Pune, on Wednesday. The point from the match meant Pune FC occupy the second place in the table along with Nay Pyi Taw FC, behind leaders Hong Kong's Kitchee (3 pts).
'The bottom line is that at least now we should take an honest look at this business of NSG membership (or Masood Azhar for that matter.),' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The next plenary session of the Nuclear Suppliers Group is likely to be held in Swiss capital Bern next month.
Joining in the opposition's criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi after India failed in its bid to clinch Nuclear Suppliers Group membership, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Friday took a dig at the PM calling it a "failed diplomacy".
Pakistan on Thursday alleged that India was involved in creating instability through "subversive and terrorist activities" in Karachi and Balochistan province.
On India's entry into the NSG, he said, "We have said many times this is a multilateral issue."
India will raise the issue of supply of uranium from Australia during the three-day visit of External Affairs Minister S M Krishna from Wednesday, hopeful that Canberra will revisit its stated position of not supplying the yellow metal to non-NPT signatory countries.
Germany on Monday backed India's bid to gain membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, applauding the country's 'excellent' non-proliferation track record.German Ambassador Thomas Mattusek told reporters that India not being a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty will not be an issue for his country's support to India's candidacy to the elite nuclear club, though it would like New Delhi to be a signatory to the NPT.
In recent years, China has refrained from taking a public stance on the India-Pakistan ties, expressing hope for resolution of the disputes through dialogue.
In an expected showdown, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched a verbal attack against each other at a Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty meeting at the United Nations on Monday.In his 35-minute speech at the NPT Review Conference, Ahmadinejad slammed Washington for bullying Tehran over its nuclear programme while not pushing the 'Zionist regime' (Israel) for getting rid of its nuclear weapons.
Alleging that Iran is evading its international responsibilities, the Obama Administration has accused Tehran of indulging in "rope-a-dope diplomacy".
'NPT waiver is like being allowed in the verandah. NSG membership is like being in the room... being part of rule making.'
A day after the US underlined its determination to strengthen the nuclear non-proliferation regime, a top US official said Washington would not push New Delhi to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) until the American Senate ratifies it.
Even though India is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Obama Administration said on Wednesday that New Delhi had a key role to play in strengthening of global nuclear non-proliferation regime.
The United States will not conduct nuclear tests and move to seek the ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the Obama administration said today, as it underlined the importance of the NPT to the non-proliferation regime, the two pacts that India has failed to support in its present form.
China continues to sell nuclear reactors to Pakistan, a US think-tank has said, expressing concern over export of nuclear materials in violation of international norms and established procedures.
Criticising the strong reactions from India over China blocking its bid to enter NSG, a state-run daily on Monday said India is "still stuck" in the 1962 war mindset as it called for a more objective evaluation of Beijing's stand.
Two nonproliferation hawks, who vehemently opposed the US-India civilian nuclear deal, will soon man the White House and State Department and lead the charge to push President Obama's non-proliferation agenda to seek a worldwide ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and a strengthening of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty that is bound to bring pressure to bear on India that has been loath to sign the CTBT and has maintained the NPT is discriminatory.
Bharatiya Janata Party and Communist Party of India-Marxist members on Friday voiced concern in the Lok Sabha over efforts by the US and other industrialised nations to curb enrichment and reprocessing technology to India and demanded a statement by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to clarify the situation.
'When you think back to the promises made 10 years ago, not a single one of those had panned out to date.'
By signing the 123 Agreement, India is effectively giving up it 34-year-old nuclear deterrent at a time when China is enhancing its own nuclear capability. (So is Pakistan; both China and Pakistan are, unsurprisingly, delighted with the 123 Agreement). In return, we will be "allowed" to give Western and Russian civil nuclear infrastructure companies business (from Indian taxpayers' money) worth over $120 billion
But the EU would like New Delhi to first fulfil certain 'necessary preconditions.'
Lauding India's track record on non-proliferation, Japan said it has been a "good boy" despite remaining outside Non Proliferation Treaty regime, but New Delhi should shoulder the responsibility to strengthen the NPT regime.
Congress on Friday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi needs to realise that diplomacy needs "depth and seriousness and not public tamasha".
On the eve of the crucial Nuclear Suppliers Group meeting in Seoul over India and Pakistan's membership in the elite group, Pakistan's former permanent representative at the United Nations in Geneva Zamir Akram has said that Islamabad was only opposed to the "exclusive membership" of India.
Maintaining its strident opposition to the historic Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, the Chinese state media has accused Washington of contradicting its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Acknowledging that it is clear to all that many terrorist groups operate in Pakistan, he said the US continues to work with the Pakistani government in this regard.
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