NSG clears Sino-Pak n-deal

New Delhi: The ways of the non-proliferation lobbies operating in the Western world are unfathomable. Even as they have their beady eyes fixed on India's 'clean waiver' and figure out new ways and means to subvert the agreement, they have allowed arch-proliferators China and Pakistan to go ahead with a nuclear reactor deal that will see Beijing supply Islamabad with two reactors.

China has successfully argued that the deal was ''grandfathered'' or struck before it became a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in 2004.

According to reports, the 23-24 June plenary meeting of the 46-nation NSG in the Netherlands questioned Beijing about the two new reactors, Chashma 3 and 4, which it has announced would be built in Pakistan.

Reports say Indian officials monitoring events said a brief Chinese statement, that the deal was ''grandfathered'' or struck before it became a member of the NSG in 2004, was sufficient for that body to accept Beijing's word, including the United States. Nobody questioned the veracity of the claim.

What has apparently raised eyebrows in Delhi is the fact that the US has always questioned the deal - the latest on 18 March this year when Robert Blake, assistant secretary in the State Department, said in Beijing, "We expect China to abide by the commitments that it made when it joined the NSG in 2004, and in particular we think the construction of new nuclear reactors such as the Chashma 3 and 4 would be inconsistent with those commitments."

Earlier, just days before the NSG plenary, the German government also granted approval to the deal between the two arch-proliferators when the government informed the German parliament that the deal did not violate NSG guidelines.