India’s biggest hurdle at the upcoming NSG meeting on June 9 will be to overcome China’s two-faced policy of opposing India’s application to join the group on the one hand and on the other violating N
India’s biggest hurdle at the upcoming NSG meeting on June 9 will be to overcome China’s two-faced policy of opposing India’s application to join the group on the one hand and on the other violating NSG terms by supplying banned nuclear materials to Pakistan.
Analysts in the US believe that India’s NSG application is in a precarious position for several reasons, chief amo-ng them being China’s assertion that if the NSG countries make an exception for India, they should do the same for Pakistan, even though Pakistan has been caug-ht selling nuclear weap-ons secrets to Libya and was shamed globally.
“Pakistan and China have played their cards really well this time around. Pakistan has an application for NSG me-mbership and China can, therefore, argue what’s good for the go-ose is good for the gander,” said Micheal Kre-pon, a nuclear proliferation expert and co-foun-der of the Stimson Cent-re, a think-tank in Wash-ington.
According to Mr Krep-on, the Chinese will underline the point that if the NSG makes an exception for India, the informal group of nati-ons should allow Pakis-tan in too and that will compound the nuclear proliferation conseque-nces because India beco-mes saddled with Pakis-tan’s terrible track record. US experts say that it is a fact that Pakistan’s nuclear programme, from concept to delivery, is dependent on supplies from China in violation of international norms. The heavy water plant and the plutonium production reactors at Khushab were made with Chinese assistance.
Also in the civil nuclear field, China assisted Pakistan with the construction of nuclear power plants at Chashma. China is also involved in the proliferation of missile technology, say experts.
China’s objection to India’s membership to the NSG is by no means a principled stand given its own proliferation history which one analyst called a “very bad record”. It is no secret that Beijing’s continued assistance to Pakistan for the latter’s civil and military nuclear programme is in flagrant violation of the obligations and commitments it made as a member of the NSG.
“It would be very surprising if China lets India in without an equal concession for Pakistan,” said Colin Cookman, programme officer at the United States Institute of Peace.
China has in the past talked of same status for Pakistan, but analysts believe that the Chinese know that the US and several other NSG members will never agree to Pakistani membership.
Beijing does not want New Delhi to have “full legal acceptance” as a nuclear armed power and have an equal footing in the global nuclear regime. Analysts widely believe that China’s stand at the NSG is part of a strategic battle being fought in Asia. China was vehemently opposed to approval of the 2008 nuclear deal, but pulled back in the face of US and Indian pressure.
