Islamabad, March 22: In a departure from its earlier stand, the US is ready to discuss Pakistan’s request for nuclear power plants and the issue may come up for discussion during next week’s strategic dialogue between the two sides, a media report has claimed.
“We are beginning to have a discussion with the Pakistan government” on the country’s desire to tap nuclear energy, US envoy in Islamabad Anne W Patterson was quoted as saying in a Los Angeles-based Pakistani newspaper.
“We are going to have working level talks” on the issue in Washington in March, she said.
She told the Pakistan Link newspaper that earlier, America’s “non-proliferation concerns were quite severe” but attitudes in Washington were changing. “I think we are beginning to pass those and this is a scenario that we are going to explore,” she added.
US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke was less categorical but what he said at a briefing last Friday on the US-Pakistan strategic talks conveyed a similar message.
“While addressing Pakistan’s energy needs, are you considering helping them establish nuclear power plants to meet their energy needs?” he was asked.
A transcript released by the state department quoted Holbrooke as saying: “We have a very broad and complex agenda in these talks, and this is the first strategic dialogue ever at this level, and the first of this administration. And we’re going to listen carefully to whatever the Pakistanis say.”
The response marks the first time a US official did not reject the Pakistani request outright. Earlier, the US officials insisted that their deal for supplying nuclear power plants to India was exclusive to New Delhi and could not be offered to another country.
—-PTI