Pakistan wary of Nuclear Suppliers ‘Exemption’ for India
Islamabad: Pakistan is wary of powerful countries pressurising smaller nations to exempt India in the admission process to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) .
It feels that strategic stability in South Asia would be undermined if Pakistan’s application was not treated equally with that of India.
Pakistani official suspect that powerful countries could force the smaller partners to support India’s NSG membership bid, despite a growing realisation for a criteriabased approach for joining the 48-member elite grouping.
“We are pretty confident that NSG countries would not go down the exemption way, but if they ultimately do so and give exemption to India,” director general of disarmament at the foreign office, Kamran Akhtar said while speaking at a workshop on ‘Defence, Deterrence and Stability’ in South Asia.
“...there would be serious repercussions not just for Pakistan, but also for other non-nuclear weapon states that may feel being unjustly denied their right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy,” he said.
At the same time, Pakistani officials feel encouraged by growing support in the NSG for establishing criteria for membership of non-NPT countries.
“There are a lot of countries that now recognise the need for a criteria-based approach rather than granting exemptions, but pressures are still being exerted on smaller countries,” he said. The workshop was jointly organised by Islamabad-based thinktank Centre for International Strategic Studies (CISS) and London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). Last month in Vienna, NSG members, for the second time in a year, failed to reach consensus on the admission of non-NPT countries. The NSG members have been divided between countries demanding strict adherence to the NPT criteria and the bloc wanting to embrace India immediately.
The official warned that strategic stability in South Asia would be undermined if Pakistani application was not treated equally with that of India. Pakistan has been pushing for its membership in the group by adopting a uniform criteria for any new country to join NSG despite US backing for India to join through a selective wavier of conditions.