Musharraf to press China for 2 reactors

On the eve of Musharraf’s visit to China today to attend the fifth anniversary summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, government sources in Pakistan have put out the word that he will seek an agreement on the sale of two Chinese nuclear power reactors of 300 MW each.

India has warily noted Beijing’s reluctance to support the liberalisation of nuclear rules in favour of India at the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group.

The United States has insisted that the exemptions it is seeking in domestic and international non-proliferation law are India-specific and will not be applicable to either Pakistan or Israel which are also outside the regime of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

China’s emphasis, in contrast, is on defining ‘‘criteria’’ for nuclear cooperation with non-NPT countries, rather than making country-specific adjustments that the US is seeking in relation to India.

Many in India suspect that China wants to perpetuate the theory of ‘‘parity’’ between India and Pakistan on nuclear issues.

As a consequence, its stress on criteria is being interpreted here as an attempt to get the NSG to either extend the courtesy of nuclear cooperation to Pakistan or deny it to both New Delhi and Islamabad.

Any move now by the Chinese leadership to sell nuclear reactors to Pakistan could stiffen resistance in both Washington and the NSG against the Indo-US nuclear agreement.

American opponents of the Bush Administration’s nuclear deal with India have been warning that Indo-US nuclear cooperation will inevitably be followed by a Chinese counter-move with Pakistan.

The best way to prevent such an outcome and the presumed strain on the global nuclear order, arms control advocates in Washington insist, is to avoid nuclear cooperation with India.

China is already building two reactors of 300 MW each near Chashma in West Punjab. While China had been extending military and civilian nuclear cooperation to Pakistan for decades, Beijing is no longer in a position to do so once it joined the Nuclear Suppliers Group a couple of years ago.

Yet, Pakistani establishment has not given up its hopes for expanding nuclear cooperation with China.

Speaking last month at an occasion to mark the 55th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between China and Pakistan, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz expressed the hope that Beijing will indeed help Pakistan meet its projected demand of 8000 MW of nuclear power by 2030.

The joint statement issued at the Musharraf’s state visit to Beijing last February, declared that the two sides agreed ‘‘to enhance their cooperation in the energy sector and signed the Framework Agreement on Energy Cooperation, a wide-ranging document’’.

The statement went on to express ‘‘satisfaction with the performance of Chashma Nuclear Power Plant-I and the start of the construction of Chashma Power Plant Unit-II. They agreed to enhance cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.’’