China on verge of signing Nuclear Deal with Pakistan

[nrj]

Obama may not interfere in the China-Pakistan N-Deal

In a major development, even as two noted American experts asked the US administration to block the China-Pakistan nuclear deal, Washington indicated it would not come in the way if the agreement was in compliance with the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) rules.

"I don't know if this will come up during the secretary's meetings in China this week," State Department spokesman P J Crowley told reporters on Monday when asked if Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would take up the issue with her interlocutors in Beijing.

"We are talking to China more broadly about the implications of this deal. It has a lengthy history to it," he said when asked if the China-Pakistan deal would come up at the ongoing Strategic and Economic Dialogue with China in Beijing and the one with India in Washington next week.

"But we will seek to make sure that should this deal go forward, it is in compliance with the rules of the Nuclear Suppliers Group," Crowley added.

Crowley's comments came as Lisa Curtis and Nicholas Hamisevicz, South Asia experts at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank, urged the Obama administration to block the China-Pakistan deal as India and Pakistan had vastly different proliferation records.

There are signs of the Obama administration softening its position towards the Chinese- Pakistani nuclear cooperation, they said, noting that the US officials have avoided pressing China against moving forward with a deal to supply two new nuclear reactors to Pakistan.

"The Obama administration's policy contrasts with that of the previous Bush administration, which actively discouraged additional Chinese assistance to Pakistan's nuclear programme," Curtis and Hamisevicz added.

"Given the widespread proliferation that resulted from the Pakistan-based A. Q. Khan network, as well as continued concerns about the existence of terrorist networks in Pakistan that seek access to nuclear weapons technology- a nod from Washington to further Chinese-Pakistani nuclear cooperation is short-sighted," they said.

The argument that the China-Pakistan nuclear reactor deal should be seen in the same light as the US-India civil nuclear deal "discounts the vastly different proliferation records of Pakistan and India, the different oversight requirements generally imposed by the US compared to China, and the prevalence of Pakistan-based terrorist groups seeking nuclear weapons technology," they claimed.

A decision to allow the China-Pakistan nuclear deal to advance unhindered would be a high-stakes diplomatic gamble taken by the Obama administration, the two experts argued. "Beijing would likely pocket US acquiescence while continuing only the most grudging cooperation on America's highest international priorities," they said.

"At the same time, Pakistan's increased access to civilian nuclear technology without sufficient legal context and safeguards poses a potential proliferation threat and danger to nuclear safety and security on the Subcontinent," added the duo.

Source

 

[anoop_mig25]

what d u expect from a president debut ridden country? america is know like giant elephant . everyone says that actually its amercian market on which china thrives but american donot by this argument themself .and why donot america devalued its currency so there would be automatically pressure on chinese

 

[nrj]

what d u expect from a president debut ridden country? america is know like giant elephant . everyone says that actually its amercian market on which china thrives but american donot by this argument themself .and why donot america devalued its currency so there would be automatically pressure on chinese

IMO its American double standards. They will accommodate every unapproved/illegal activity to turn it into their "Strategy" benefiting US only, even if it brings serious threats to nations like India. Nuclear Proliferation is on its high in this time, ignoring it US is singing songs of Nuclear-free world with zero-actions on the ground.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

If a double standard like this is kept why would any country honor the NPT,CTBT,FMCT?? This move is going to comebak to bite USA is the ***big time . Why should china stop with Pakistan? why can't Burma,North Korea,Iran, Syria, Lybia also get nuclear reactors from China?? Congratulations China for killing the NPT and breaking the nuclear disparity that created a world of have and have nots. India should also plan to sell reactors in the future.

 

[ajtr]

Well you've to look usa-china-pakistan partnership from different angles.All 3 seems to oppose other but if you really analyze there actions on griound then it gives different picture of 3 buddies together.First agains USSR and now against russia.Pakistan was allowed to 've nuke under the secret understanding between the three.usa will oppose for the sake of opposing but then endorse chinese help to proliferation to pak.

 

[AJSINGH]

another example of america appeasment and disregard for India

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Rumor has it the original Pak test after pokran failed until China could smuggle a working nuke to them in a hurry.

 

[ajtr]

Rumor has it the original Pak test after pokran failed until China could smuggle a working nuke to them in a hurry.

pak bomb is based on original chinese chic-4 design.and same design were recovered by CIA in Libya.Read about the bomb in the basement...you'll know that pak originally had nukes since early 1980s.....

 

[nrj]

Well you've to look usa-china-pakistan partnership from different angles.All 3 seems to oppose other but if you really analyze there actions on griound then it gives different picture of 3 buddies together.First agains USSR and now against russia.Pakistan was allowed to 've nuke under the secret understanding between the three.usa will oppose for the sake of opposing but then endorse chinese help to proliferation to pak.

Among these 3-club, China is striving for world domination & to secure all available resources.
I wonder if China misses any opportunity in near future to wipe out US.
Season changing US policy is being ignorant day by day to this threat.

With rapid proliferation, world is coming to equi-potential point. Lots of countries with Nuclear power calls for developing more destructible weapon to hold the edge spreading fear as high as possible.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

we have fast breeder reactors and stockpiled plutonium/uranium to make thousands of warheads if we want,if they want to race we are more than capable of running.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_12-9-2005_pg7_22

 

[nrj]

we have fast breeder reactors and stockpiled uranium to make thousands of warheads if we want,if they want to race we are more than capable of running.

US has smartly understood that aggressive political will in India won't arise any soon. And as long as they keep India engaged in pak-china issues, nothing serious is happening.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

US has smartly understood that aggressive political will in India won't arise any soon. And as long as they keep India engaged in pak-china issues, nothing serious is happening.

it is better for us too, let USA fight China on their own. This can be a positive and we will remain in this engagement until number one and two go to war, no need to do anything just watch then decide on what course to take. This more or less guarantees US will have a war with China

 

[AkhandBharat]

China on verge of signing nuke deal with Pakistan: Expert

China on verge of signing nuke deal with Pakistan: Expert

China is on the verge of unveiling a nuclear deal with Pakistan that will, in effect, be "cocking a snook" at the world as it will be outside the purview of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), a noted security expert said on Monday.

After the exception the NSG accorded to India in 2008 to enable the implementation of its civilian nuclear pact with the US, Pakistan had sought a similar deal from Washington and after having been turned down, "it now appears that China will soon announce its deal with Pakistan to export two nuclear reactors", Commodore (retd) C. Uday Bhaskar, director of think tank National Maritime Foundation (NMF), said.

"This will be without NSG concurrence and despite the many misgivings about Pakistan's track record, its linkages to terror and radical ideologies," he said while addressing a seminar here on "Nuclear Arsenals post-2010", organised by the Indian Navy-funded NMF.

"One can infer that this is the equivalent of China announcing its own autonomy in the WMD (weapons of mass destruction) domain and that the US is no longer the determining factor in matters nuclear," Bhaskar contended.

"In effect, this would mean that China is cocking a snook at the NSG, the US and the rest of the world," he added.

Tracing Pakistan's missile and nuclear acquisitions and the upcoming deal with China, he said these had "many grave implications" for the region - and particularly India.

"Tracking Pakistan's nuclear acquisitions, it is evident that Pakistan, which began with an enriched uranium weapon, is now moving toward the plutonium option. This switch has many grave implications for the region - and India in particular.

"This is primarily due to the distinctive status Pakistan has apropos its nuclear weapon: It is the only country where the army has its finger on the button, the current civilian leadership notwithstanding," Bhaskar maintained.

He also noted that Pakistan was the only state "to use the nuclear weapon to enhance its strategic space for pursuing a revisionist agenda that invests in religious radicalism and supports terrorism".

"China is cognisant of this pattern and has yet chosen to continue its support to Pakistan's nuclear programme," Bhaskar contended.

In this context, he noted that though the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) had come into being in 1970, "concurrently, the world spawned a very complex nuclear eco-system often shrouded and deliberately muddied, with a disconnect between rhetoric and reality. States, state representatives and opaque activities led to selective proliferation and spread".

"One such WMD domain was the one spawned by China, of which the Sino-Pakistan one is the better known, with linkages extending from North Korea to Saudi Arabia," Bhaskar pointed out.

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[ajtr]

Washington objects to China-Pakistan nuclear deal​

The Obama administration has decided to object to a lucrative deal in which a state-owned Chinese companies would supply Pakistan with two nuclear reactors, U.S. officials said.

The deal is expected to be discussed next week at a meeting in New Zealand of the 46-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, which monitors such transactions. Experts had said it appears to be a violation of international guidelines forbidding nuclear exports to countries that have not signed onto the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or do not have international safeguards on reactors. Pakistan has not signed the treaty.

China has suggested the sale is grandfathered from before it joined the NSG in 2004, because it was completing work on two earlier reactors for Pakistan at the time. But U.S. officials disagree.

"Additional nuclear cooperation with Pakistan beyond those specific projects that were grandfathered in 2004 would require consensus approval" by the NSG, a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity, "which we believe is extremely unlikely."

State Department spokesman Gordon DuGuid said the U.S. government "has reiterated to the Chinese government that the United States expects Beijing to cooperate with Pakistan in ways consistent with Chinese nonproliferation obligations."

 

[Yusuf]

Right then, after all the talk, the US has opposed the deal. I had quite expected it. I am sure our good PM would have had a word with Obama and also Krishna would have raised it up with Hillary Clinton during the recent talks in Washington.

I am sure it just would not matter to both the Chinese and Pakistanis. They were just trying to legalize their illegal transaction that was going on all these years. If the NSG does not approve, they will just carry on what they were doing before.

 

[SHASH2K2]

WASHINGTON: The Obama administration has decided to object to a Sino-Pak civilian nuclear deal for establishing two atomic reactors in Pakistan, as it comes before the Nuclear Suppliers Group next week.

Experts have said that the deal appears to be violating international guidelines forbidding nuclear exports to countries that have not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or do not have international safeguards on reactors.

The Sino-Pak nuclear deal is expected to come up before the 46-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) meeting next week in New Zealand, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

State department spokesman Gordon DuGuid said the US government "has reiterated to the Chinese government that the United States expects Beijing to cooperate with Pakistan in ways consistent with Chinese nonproliferation obligations".

In a recent article, a prominent American nuclear expert believes this would breach international protocol about the trade of nuclear equipment and material.

"The move would breach international protocol about the trade of nuclear equipment and material," Mark Hibbs said in the latest issue of the prestigious Foreign Policy magazine.

The China National Nuclear Corporation is financing for two new reactors at Chashma in Pakistan's Punjab province.

The Post said China has suggested the sale is grandfathered from the time before it joined the NSG in 2004, because it was completing work on two earlier reactors for Pakistan at the time.

However, US officials said any such proposal would require a consensus approval by the NSG.

"Additional nuclear cooperation with Pakistan beyond those specific projects that were grandfathered in 2004 would require consensus approval" by the NSG, a US official was quoted as saying, and added that this the US believes "is extremely unlikely".

Interestingly, China had initially objected to the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, saying it would undermine the global non-proliferation regime. Beijing finally came around to support the agreement in the NSG, apparently under US pressure.

The Indo-US nuclear agreement was signed in 2009 after a long-drawn process, including a crucial NSG waiver, and passage through both the Indian and American legislatures.

 

[nrj]

Pak-China nuke reactor deal set to open fresh rift with US


Islamabad: China's confirmation of its plans to help Pakistan in expanding its Chashma nuclear energy complex by building two reactors in addition to one already operating and another nearing completion, may open a fresh rift between the United States and China.

Diplomats say that the sale of the reactors to Pakistan is likely to be discussed at the next NSG meeting in November, The Nation reported.

China could bring forward either of the two arguments: that it should receive an exemption from the rule that prevents commerce with states that have not signed the NPT, or that the deal was covered by an agreement with Pakistan, signed before it joined the NSG.

China's foreign ministry spokeswoman implied that Beijing would take the second route, saying that "the project is based on an agreement signed between the two countries in 2003," the paper said.

The renewed push behind the Pakistan deal also reflects China's commercial ambitions to become a big player in the reviving international nuclear industry, by developing economies of scale and expertise that could make them tough competitors.

Meanwhile, a senior Pakistani government official disclosed that China had offered to extend "extremely concessional" financial terms for the nuclear agreement, which, he said, "has made possible what would have simply been impossible for cost reasons".

However, he refused to elaborate the exact terms offered by Beijing, but said; "Our Chinese brothers have left it to us to decide how much time we need to pay back their money. I can also say to you, the interest rates are very soft." :emot15:

Earlier, a newspaper had reported that China's main nuclear power company was in talks with Pakistan to build a one-gigawatt nuclear power plant.

 

[nrj]

China-Pak nuke deal may not get NSG nod given Pak's past: US

With China pressing ahead on its controversial decision to supply two additional nuclear reactors to Pakistan, the US today indicated that the deal may not get the approval of the 46-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) given Islamabad's track record.

Asked if the US was concerned over China's plans to supply additional reactors to Pakistan, US Ambassador to India Timothy J Roemer said, "I am not sure it will happen in Pakistan, given their track record. This is very important issue in respect to China."

He also contrasted Pakistan's track record with India and said the Indo-US civil nuclear partnership "says loudly to the world community (that) we trust India given its track record on the proliferation issues.

"One of the fundamental important issues for the US is not only India's flawless track record and high-trust but also the US efforts to try as Prime Minister Singh has said to provide more inclusive growth to Indians..."

Significantly, US National Nuclear Security Administration chief Thomas D'Agostino, while attending the International Atomic Energy Agency General Conference in Vienna, Austria earlier this week, said, "We look to engage with China on these particular issues...my focus is to use the framework of the mechanisms that we have in the NSG."

"We are going to use the NSG to the best of our abilities and use all of the tools that we have in that forum to address specific nuclear arrangements that are made, whether it is with China, Pakistan or a variety of other countries," D'Agostino said.

The US has argued the Pakistan-China deal would require a waiver from the 46-member group, which seeks to restrict atomic exports to countries that have signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Islamabad has not signed the pact.

The US sought and won a special exemption from NSG while negotiating a landmark atomic trade deal with India, another nuclear-armed nation that has not joined the treaty. But it happened due to flawless track record of India in the non-proliferation field.

However, during the negotiations, China was among a group of nations to criticize the Indo-US deal before ultimately granting the waiver.

The China-Pak nuclear deal has been a cause of concern for many because of Pakistan's history as a nuclear proliferator, mounting instability within that country and worries the agreement would undermine the nonproliferation regime.

 

[ajtr]

Asked if the US was concerned over China's plans to supply additional reactors to Pakistan, US Ambassador to India Timothy J Roemer said, "I am not sure it will happen in Pakistan, given their track record. This is very important issue in respect to China."

How about china's track record in nuke proliferation to pakistan an north korea????If usa considers chinese track record as flawless on proliferation then sure it can consider pakistan record too as flawless.

 

[nrj]

How about china's track record in nuke proliferation to pakistan an north korea????If usa considers chinese track record as flawless on proliferation then sure it can consider pakistan record too as flawless.

I am not sure if US will really make NSG reject Pak deal or it is just Climate-Fabrication for November's scheduled landing of AirFoce One in New Delhi.