Hot topic of discussion in India is the proposed China-Pakistan nuclear deal which could spell trouble for India's own membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, severely upsetting the calculations of the government here.
India had hoped that the New Zealand plenary meeting might move the process along for India to be eventually recognized as a formal member of the group. It's about time it should!
There is a growing anger, albeit impotent, within the NSG as they confront a virtual fait accompli by China "informing" them of its decision to build two new nuclear reactors for Pakistan, a proliferation rogue. But such is the growing clout of China internationally that there is a lot of grumbling, but little outright opposition as there should have been.
The US so far is the only country to openly oppose the proposed arrangement, but that too happened after the Iran sanctions vote in the UN Security Council, where China's cooperation was crucial.
China is unlikely to ask for a full waiver for Pakistan from the NSG, along the lines of the India deal. That would require a huge amount of political investment of the kind the US made for India. Instead, China is likely to push these two reactors through under a kind of diplomatic amnesia because there is a paper trail that says only two reactors in Pakistan had been "grandfathered" by China.
With China becoming stronger by the day in international politics, this kind of a "thin-end-of-the-wedge" kind of deal might just go through. Fingers are crossed that it does not.
Source of news- TOI
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