US will not clear Sino-Pak n-deal at the NSG

Washington: With alarm bells ringing in the capitals of the world that two nuclear proliferators of long standing, China and Pakistan, were on the verge of announcing a nuclear deal, involving the export of atleast two reactors by China to Pakistan, comes the news that the United States would certainly object to any such deal should it be presented before the Nuclear Suppliers Group for approval.

It is being given to understand that the deal in question may be put up before the NSG next week for approval. The occasion will be a meeting of the 46-member Nuclear Suppliers Group in New Zealand, according to a report in The Washington Post.

The signals that the United States will not clear any such export proposal by China comes after it maintained an enigmatic posture in the course of its first ever strategic dialogue with Pakistan a month and a half ago saying it was studying the matter carefully. This had raised hackles amongst the community of strategic and defence experts in the United States which openly questioned the Obama administration's commitment to battle nuclear proliferation around the world.

Domain experts say the deal appears to be in violation of international guidelines forbidding nuclear exports to countries that have not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) or do not have international safeguards on reactors. India, though not a signatory to the NPT, has agreed to bring a specified list of its reactors under international safeguard norms. 

Concerning the proposed Sino-Pak nuclear deal, a US 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 non-proliferation obligations".

Prominent American nuclear experts have already raised concerns about the likelihood of such a deal and a perceived tendency within the Obama administration to 'blind-eye' the deal for the sake of convenience in matters related to Afghanistan, where it is critically dependent on Pakistan to battle the Taliban, and Americas own bilateral issues with China, particularly in the economic sphere.