Nuclear Reactors 365 - China And Pakistan Are Collaborating In Denying Membership In The Nuclear Suppliers Group To India - Part 1 of 2 Parts
Part 1 of 2 Parts
The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) is a multinational body concerned with reducing nuclear proliferation by controlling the export and re-transfer of materials that may be applicable to nuclear weapon development and by improving safeguards and protection on existing materials." It was founded in 1974 after India detonated a nuclear device. Nations that had already signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty decided that additional prohibitions were needed to prevent the export of nuclear equipment, materials or technology. A list of controlled exports was drawn up and regularly updated over the years. Forty eight nations currently participate in the NSG.
In 2006, there was a concerted effort to either admit India to the NSG or to give India a special waiver for imports of nuclear technology. After intense diplomatic efforts on the part of the U.S. and other nations, India was given the special waiver. Now Pakistan and China are working together to block formal India's admission to the NSG.
Pakistan is not a member of the NSG. When India requested an opportunity to present its case for admission to the NSG to the NSG Consultative Group meeting in late April, Pakistan immediately requested an opportunity to apply for NSG admission. Analysts say that Pakistan knew that the NSG would not grant its request.
China has said that it will back the entry of both Pakistan and India but will not back India's entry if Pakistan is not also admitted. Analysts say that China told Pakistan to make its doomed request deliberately so that it could appear to be even handed and fair when it supported denying India admission without Pakistan being admitted.
Sources say that Pakistan is now going to write to each member of the NSG to request admission to the NSG in anticipation of a move by India to follow the same route and contact all members about its possible admission. There will be a NSG plenary session in June where all the member nations will be represented. Apparently China is assuming that most of the NSG member nations will each deny the Pakistani request and China can once again use this denial as an excuse to call for denying India membership.
While China wants to appear to be neutral with respect to Pakistani and Indian membership in the NSG, China and India have had serious differences for decades and analysts say that China is using this opportunity to make India's expansion of nuclear power more difficult. The Chinese government recently told the President of Pakistan that "if India is allowed to join the NSG and Pakistan is deprived of NSG membership, Beijing will veto the move and block the Indian entry". A former Pakistani ambassador to the U.N. was recently quoted as saying that "that India will not make it to the NSG despite US support since China was committed to both India and Pakistan joining the NSG at the same time, and would block any move for a unilateral admission of India."
The U.S. position is that Pakistan cannot be admitted to the NSG because it has a history of selling nuclear technology to rogue states. There is also the fear that new tactical nuclear devices being deployed by Pakistan to their border with India could easily find their way into the hands of terrorists. China is well aware of this fact and is using Pakistan to slow down India's emergence as a serious international economic and trade rival to China. India is not going to be fooled by this charade and China may well suffer unwanted trade repercussions for playing this game.
Please read Part 2
