A key meet on bilateral financial ties between India and China scheduled for this week got postponed on Thursday, at a time when the two countries have been sparring over India’s membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group. The India-China financial dialogue was supposed to take place as part of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s five-day visit to the country. Jaitley was scheduled to arrive in Beijing later in the day. He will now meet his Chinese counterpart on June 27, the finance ministry said.

Officials told PTI that Shaktikanta Das, the Secretary for the Department of Economic Affairs, could not attend the meeting, and it was cancelled as a result. Finance secretaries from both countries have headed seven rounds of dialogue so far, though this time the finance ministers were expected to be involved. India and China review their economic ties at these meetings.

The relationship between the two countries has been tense as China has been sending mixed signals about its stand on India’s membership to the NSG. While earlier, it had shown strong opposition to India’s bid, on Monday, China had said “the door is open” for dialogue on the issue. In May, India had applied for membership to the NSG, which currently has 48 countries that work together to monitor and control the export of materials or technology that can be used to create nuclear weapons.