ISLAMABAD: Unending differences at the Nuclear Suppliers Group were prolonging the stalemate on the admission of countries, which are not signatories of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), into the 48-member cartel controlling global nuclear trade.

This was stated by Strategic Vision Institute President Dr Zaf ar Iqbal Cheema while speaking at a webinar hosted by the think tank, according to a media statement issued on Wednesday.

`The (membership) applications of India and Pakistan are lying dormant since there has been no further discussions on the subject,` he said.

Pakistan and India had applied for the membership of NSG in 2016. Little progress could be made on the matter af terwards.

The 30th Plenary Meeting of NSG held in Brussels from June 24-25, in its public statement said: `The Group noted that discussions continue on the requests for participation that had been submitted. The Group noted the discussions on the issue of technical, legal and political aspects of the participation of non-NPT States in the NSG.

Dr Cheema said NSG member states were divided into `pro-merit` lobby and the one that supported a `criteria-based approach`. The one`s favouring the meritbased policy are backing a `country spe-cific` approach favouring India, whereas those calling for defining a criteria want a fixed politico-legal standard that every state aspiring for NSG membership would have to fulfill.

He recalled that an attempt was made in Dec 2016 in the shape of `Grossi Formula` that was too biased in favour of India and hence could not go forward.

Nothing significant has happened since then on the issue.

Speaking on the occasion, Retired Ambassador Tariq Osman Hyder said the Pakistan government should have discussed the issue of NSG membership with the United States in its discussions on peace efforts for Afghanistan. He said he was disappointed at not seeing this issue in the readouts on recent talks with the US.

He contended that success of Pakistan`s case at NSG would depend on how vigorously it was pursued within the NSG and with its members in a broader framework.

About NSG, the retired diplomat said: `Unless equitably restructured, NSG would impede the peaceful civil nuclear, and social development of developing countries which was becoming increasingly the case now with all the four control regimes restricting dual-use technology vital for development including Artificial Intelligence.`Staff Reporter