US Senator John McCain, center, and US acting ambassador to India, Kathleen Stephens, right, leave after a meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI: India summoned the top diplomat from the US Embassy Wednesday to complain for the third time about spying, following new allegations that Washington’s National Security Agency targeted its ruling party.

“What we have said is that we expect a response and an assurance that this won’t happen again,” a Foreign Ministry source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

A new classified document made public by The Washington Post on Monday showed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was among authorized targets for the NSA in 2010 while it was India’s main opposition.

India has complained to the United States on two previous occasions, in July and November 2013, over other revelations — including the disclosure that its UN mission in New York and its Washington embassy were snooped on. Both times Washington has said it would look into what it can share about its espionage program but failed to offer any details, the source said.

“We have said that we would like a response, which we haven’t received,” he said.

The new incident comes ahead of a visit to New Delhi by US Secretary of State John Kerry, who is expected to meet Modi and other government members in the next few months.

The Indian PM, whose party swept to power in May with the first majority in 30 years, will travel to the United States in September for the UN General Assembly and his first meeting with President Barack Obama.

Senator John McCain arrived on Monday, the first high-ranking US politician in India since the change of government. He met Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj but then canceled a scheduled interaction with the press as news of the latest diplomatic row played out on Indian news channels.

The BJP was listed among six foreign political parties — along with Egypt’s Islamist movement the Muslim Brotherhood and the Pakistan Peoples Party — on which the NSA was given permission to carry out surveillance in 2010, says the document published by The Washington Post.

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