In what is being seen as a diplomatic snub to Beijing for creating hurdles at the Vienna meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group on the India waiver, visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi was not granted an appointment with Congress president Sonia Gandhi despite a request.

Though he had kept the morning hours free for a meeting with Gandhi, Yang did not get a call. Official sources said he then went sightseeing..

Delivering a lecture on India-China relations, Yang denied the allegation that Beijing tried to block a consensus in Vienna, calling it the “NSG misunderstanding”. “This NSG thing was not on my mind, because our policy was set long before and was simple, that we fully understand the desire for India to make peaceful use of nuclear energy... we adopted a responsible and constructive role... And in the NSG, before consensus was reached, we said that we didn’t have any problems. Facts speak louder than reports... China does not see India as a rival, but as a partner,” he said.

Meanwhile, US Ambassador David C Mulford indicated that the final Indo-US civilian nuclear cooperation agreement will be signed when PM Manmohan Singh meets President Bush later this month. Ruling out any possibility of a similar nuclear deal with Pakistan, Mulford said the 123 agreement will be presented before the US Congress in the “next few days”. He did not rule out a “lame duck session” to approve the deal if it was not passed in the session ending September 26. On China’s role in Vienna, he said: “China, in the end, did the right thing. Period.”