India raises with China contentious issues of NSG,Masood Azhar

India on Saturday raised with China its blocking of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar's banning by the UN as well as Beijing's opposition to India's NSG membership bid for which the two sides agreed to have a meeting soon between their top disarmament officials.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, during their talks, also decided to put in place a new mechanism at the level of Foreign Secretaries to discuss various aspects of bilateral ties which have witnessed strain in the recent past.

Swaraj also conveyed to Wang, India's concerns on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir during the three-hour-long discussion including over lunch.

They reviewed the situation on the border and discussed further steps to strengthen peace and tranquillity.

Earlier in the day, Wang also called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a number of issues were discussed during the 20-minute-long meeting.

"Lengthy discussion were held on India's NSG membership. Swaraj outlined importance of meeting our clean energy goals in the context of COP-21. India offered to discuss any technical issues China may have. It was agreed that the DGs of Disarmament of the two countries would meet soon," official sources said.

China had scuttled India's bid for membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) at the plenary meeting of the 48-nation grouping in June on the grounds that it was not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), evoking a strong reaction from India.

India had said China was the only country that put a road block to its NSG membership.

Swaraj also raised the issue of China blocking India's efforts to get JeM chief Azhar, mastermind of the Mumbai and Pathankot terror attacks, banned by the UN.

"China's technical hold on listing of Masood Azhar in the UNSC 1267 Committee was also taken up. China was urged to revisit its technical hold in line with its own professed zero tolerance towards terrorism," the sources said.

They said the situation on the border was also reviewed and further steps to strengthen peace and tranquillity were discussed.

"A new mechanism at the level of Foreign Secretaries agreed to discuss ties," the sources said.