Washington, June 16: The US appeared in a publicly ‘non-opposing’ mode over China’s proposed civil nuclear deal with Pakistan, but insisted that Beijing needs an NSG exemption to go ahead with the agreement as was done in the case of the US-India atomic pact.
“If China wishes to proceed with this (nuclear deal with Pakistan), they are going to require an exemption from the Nuclear Suppliers Group,” a senior State Department official told reporters.
Asked about US’ stand on the issue, the official said, it had asked China to clarify the details of its second sale of additional reactors to Pakistan but stopped short of opposing it publicly.
“The NSG operates by consensus and we will have the opportunity to weigh in,” he said.
The official was responding to questions as to why the United States is “not publicly opposing” the China-Pak nuclear deal, despite the fact that it has serious concerns over Pakistan’s track record on nuclear proliferations.
“We have asked China to clarify the details of its second sale of additional nuclear reactors to Pakistan,” State Department spokesperson P J Crowley told reporters at his daily news briefing yesterday.
This appears to extend beyond cooperation that was grandfathered when China was approved for membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group, he said in response to a question.
“We believe that such cooperation would require a specific exemption approved by consensus of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, as was done for India. So we’re not looking at any difference between the two,” Crowley said.
The State Department spokesman said that the US has been taking up this issue with the Chinese periodically.
“I believe this was an issue that we’ve had, you know, periodic discussions with China for some time,” he said.
The China-Pak nuclear deal is expected to come up before the 46-nation NSG meeting next week in New Zealand.
In a recent article, a prominent American nuclear expert said 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 in the June issue of the prestigious Foreign Policy magazine.
The Washington Post said China has suggested that 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 US officials disagree on the issue.
The NSG, which is currently chaired by Hungary, is scheduled to hold its annual plenary meeting between June 21-25 in New Zealand.
In a May 26 e-mail to Arms Control Today, a Hungarian diplomat said that “the Chinese-Pakistani deal on nuclear reactors has not been formally discussed within NSG but we anticipate the issue will be raised” during the New Zealand meeting.
The diplomat added: “We hope to learn more about the deal during the plenary after which the Group can formulate a well-informed position on the issue”.
When China joined the NSG, it had already built a power reactor at Pakistan’s Chashma site.
It claimed at the time that, under the NSG’s “grandfather” provisions, it was entitled to build a second one, on the grounds that the second project was covered in its existing agreement with Pakistan, said the Armed Control Association.
China made “a declaration of existing projects” that covered Chashma-1 and -2, which “were grandfathered as conditions of China’s NSG membership,” a US official said in a recent e-mail to Arms Control Today.
“There was no declaration at that time, and subsequently no NSG approval, of any intention to build additional nuclear power plants at Chasma,” the official was quoted as saying by the Arms Control Association.
“Without an exception granted by the NSG by consensus, Chinese construction of additional nuclear power plants in Pakistan beyond what was grandfathered in 2004 would be inconsistent with NSG guidelines and China’s commitments to the NSG,” the official said.
The NSG is not a formal organisation, and its guidelines are not binding.
–PTI