ISLAMABAD, MARCH 22
The US today dismissed reports that it was mulling negotiations on a civil nuclear agreement with Pakistan.
“The US has not entered (into) negotiations on a civil nuclear agreement with Pakistan,” a spokesperson of the US embassy in the capital told PTI, a day after media reports said Washington may discuss Islamabad’s request for cooperation in setting up nuclear power plants in the country.
“The United States is committed to helping Pakistan address its real and growing energy needs, and we look forward to cooperating with Pakistan in ways that are compatible with Pakistan’s economic, environmental and security needs and with US international commitments and policies,” it said.
A US-based Pakistani newspaper had recently quoted US Ambassador Anne W Patterson as saying that Washington is “beginning to have a discussion with the Pakistan government” on its desire to tap nuclear energy.
Patterson was also quoted as saying that there would be “working level talks” on the issue in Washington this month.
“Earlier on, non-proliferation concerns were quite severe. I think we are beginning to pass those and this is a scenario that we are going to explore…,” Patterson was quoted as saying in the report.
The embassy clarification came ahead of a key bilateral strategic talk in Washington on Wednesday for which a high-level Pakistan delegation has reached the American capital.
Pakistan has been seeking a civil nuclear pact similar to that between India and the US, arguing that Washington must not discriminate against it.
India warns against deal
HERALD BUREAU
NEW DELHI, MARCH 22
Keeping fingers crossed on any civil nuclear deal in the US-Pakistan strategic dialogue in Washington on Wednesday, India is banking on the Americans rejecting Islamabad’s demand in the past because its non-proliferation record is not clean.
There was no official reaction to media reports of the US striking a deal with Pakistan like the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement, but External Affairs Ministry sources said the club of nuclear nations should stop any such decision in view of Pakistan’s suspect record in non-proliferation.
Reacting to Pakistan’s plea for the US help to set up nuclear power plants to meet the acute power crisis, sources warned of dangers in providing any nuclear help to a country that has a history of illegal nuclear trade and dubious sale of the nuclear technology to other countries.
These were the reasons specifically cited by the United States in the past when it entered into the civil nuclear deal with India and Pakistan sought similar arrangement, sources said. They said India, therefore, hopes that the US would act with caution while providing any nuclear assistance to Islamabad.
They said India was concerned over the possible shift in US policy hinted by US ambassador to Islamabad Anne Patterson in an interview to a Pakistani-American journal that “we are beginning to have a discussion with the Pakistan government on the country’s desire to tap nuclear energy.”
Strategic experts in Delhi say Islamabad is trying to use its support to the US in Afghanistan as a bargaining chip to lift embargo on advance American nuclear technology. Though the US is in a hurry in reviewing its Afghanistan policy, it will have to seek a lot many more guarantees from Pakistan than those it secured from India on the nuclear deal before any kind of agreement, they said.
They pointed out that the United States repeatedly refused any nuclear deal with Pakistan on the ground of its dubious proliferation record while justifying the deal with India in July 2005 on the ground of its impeccable record in non-proliferation.
