BEIJING: Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, while stating during a Presser that China had no intention to recognize N. Korea as nuclear power, reiterated it had never recognized Pakistan and India as nuclear countries.
The United States has helped India in acquiring a degree of legitimacy as a nuclear power, but the Chinese objection has stalled any outright legitimacy.
China’s comments on the nuclear status of South Asia rivals come in the wake of global fears of a war breaking out between the two countries.
Pakistan on Friday returned to India an Air Force pilot who was arrested after his plane was shot down over Pakistan on Wednesday.
China has been blocking India’s entry into the 48-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) on the ground that New Delhi has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
India has said it has dropped bombs on “terror camps” inside Pakistani territory and killed a “very large number of terrorists”. But, Pakistan says that’s not the case.
