Salman Khurshid reiterates fears over China-Pakistan nuclear-ties
Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury, ET Bureau Sep 19, 2013, 04.41AM IST
NEW DELHI: Khurshid has reiterated that India has serious concerns over China's expanding nuclear ties with Pakistan, raising the issue with visiting journalists from China.
Nuclear relations between China and Pakistan "have a more lasting impact of question mark or a concern", the minister said in an interaction with the visiting delegation on Tuesday. "Although you have a relationship with them, and we have no problem that you have a relationship with them, our concern in your relationship with Pakistan is only about the impact on nuclear non-proliferation. That is one concern that we have expressed to you," Khurshid told the delegation, which included journalists from the state-run Chinese media.
India had earlier raised the issue in May, when Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited New Delhi. China had, however, brushed aside such concerns, saying the nuclear cooperation was limited to "peaceful purposes" to overcome Pakistan's energy crisis.
China has often been dubbed Pakistan's 'allweather friend' that provides defence equipment and offers assistance to boost its economy and build infrastructure. The two countries had last month signed contracts for two reactors at the Karachi Coastal Nuclear Power Project (worth $9.6 billion), marking the first foreign purchase of the Chinese reactor design. The main contractor is China National Nuclear Corporation's subsidiary, China Zhongyuan Engineering Company.
Other Chinese companies, which have been earlier involved in the construction of reactors at Pakistan's Chashma nuclear power plant in Punjab province will also participate in the project. These include China Nuclear Power Engineering, the Nuclear Power Institute of China and the East China Electric Power Designing Institute. The reactors to be supplied by China are derived from the ones that it imported from France in the 1990s and it claims "full intellectual property rights over the design".
Pakistan is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), of which China is a member, prohibits supply of reactors to the countries that are not signatory to the NPT. India had received a clean waiver from NSG in 2008 that paved the way for civil nuclear cooperation with various countries.
Salman Khurshid reiterates fears over China-Pakistan nuclear-ties - Economic Times
