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BEIJING: China said that US and India should address concerns of the international community on their bilateral civilian nuclear energy cooperation deal, PTI reported.
As to the cooperation between the Untied States and India on the nuclear deal, relevant countries can cooperate on the peaceful use of nuclear energy, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said.
"We also believe that the arrangement and discussions (between the US and India) should take into consideration the concerns of the international community," Liu said when asked to comment on the visit to India by Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, for talks with the Indian officials.
"We hope that relevant parties can find a way out to exercise wisdom so as to find a solution to this issue," Liu added.
In the past, China had said that it believes that all countries can carry out cooperation on the peaceful use of nuclear energy under the precondition of abiding by the international obligations.
"The relevant cooperation should be conducive to maintaining and strengthening the principles and validity of the international non-proliferation mechanism," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said last month, adding that Beijing would participate in the discussions on the relevant issues under this principle.
Asked if China would back the deal at the NSG, the ministry spokesperson said: "We have noticed that at present there are still some different opinions within the NSG on lifting the restrictions of nuclear export to India."
China's official media, including the ruling Communist Party's mouthpiece the People's Daily, have repeatedly criticized the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, claiming that it amounted to double-standards and would undermine global non-proliferation efforts.
Last week, a veteran Chinese diplomat described the Indo-US nuclear deal as "detrimental" to global nuclear non-proliferation regime, which could also impact the settlement of the Korean and Iranian nuclear issues as well as the Middle East situation.
Asked whether China would back the Indo-US nuclear deal, Zhou Gang, a former Chinese Ambassador to India, who is now a Special Consultant to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, appeared reluctant to back the agreement.
"China has to honour its international commitment on the nuclear non-proliferation issue. This is something China has to take into consideration while launching nuclear energy cooperation with India," Zhou said while describing the Indo-US nuclear deal as "rather complicated."
"Moreover, I think Indo-US nuclear deal is detrimental to the international nuclear non-proliferation regime," said Zhou, who interestingly was the Chinese Ambassador to New Delhi when India conducted the nuclear tests in 1998 citing apparent China threat.
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