As New Delhi today expressed its “disappointment” over China’s role in the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG), visiting Chinese Foreign minister Yang Jiechi, who had requested for a meeting with Congress President Sonia Gandhi, was kept waiting for an appointment.

Chinese Embassy officials told The Indian Express tonight they had asked for an appointment with Sonia before Yang left Beijing — while his schedule was being prepared — but had not heard from her office until late tonight.

In his first trip to India, the Minister has kept tomorrow morning aside for “sightseeing”, said officials, and will deliver a lecture on “India-China relations” in the afternoon.

After a meeting with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Yang denied that Beijing had attempted to block consensus at the NSG. “Facts speak louder than these reports,” he said. “We didn’t do anything to block it (NSG consensus). We played a constructive role. So I was really surprised by some reports.” He said that China has “always” worked with responsibility and towards consensus both at IAEA and NSG.

At the NSG, while Austria and Ireland were holdout countries, the Chinese delegation threatened to return home arguing that a consensus should not be rammed down. New Delhi had to issue a demarche to the Chinese envoy in Delhi — at 3 am on Saturday — and the same was communicated to Beijing late on Friday night. After the consensus, China said it hoped the decision would stand the test of time and that the NSG would address “aspirations” of all parties (read Pakistan) seeking peaceful use of nuclear power. National Security Advisor M K Narayanan had made the government’s views public that New Delhi was “surprised” at Beijing’s behaviour and would express “disappointment” with Yang.

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