Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Strategic Vision Institute (SVI) on Tuesday noted that the membership of Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) was a socioeconomic and technological imperative for Pakistan and the government needed to develop a long-term strategy for access to civilian nuclear energy technology and entry into export control regimes. SVI, a think tank specialising in nuclear issues, made these recommendations ahead of a roundtable discussion on the Implications of NSG Plenary Session being held on June 23-24, 2016, in Seoul for Pakistan.

The officials’ level meeting of the NSG session has already begun. The meeting is expected to consider the issue of admission of non-NPT states into the 48-member cartel that regulates the international nuclear trade. The think tank further noted that NSG membership was not just a matter of prestige for Pakistan. It cautioned that India’s admission into NSG, without Pakistan getting the same, would affect the region’s strategic stability, renew arms race, and enable India to affect the ‘legitimate’ civilian nuclear energy cooperation between Pakistan and China. SVI further feared that India’s entry into the club would make it more arrogant and aggressive in its dealings with the neighbours.

The think tank warned that anti-Americanism in Pakistan could rise if the US managed membership for India through coercive diplomacy. Former United Nations permanent representative in Geneva Amb Zamir Akram, who is also an expert on nuclear issues, while chairing the session said that Pakistan is opposed to ‘exclusive Indian membership’ of NSG. Pakistan, he noted, was instead in favour of developing criteria that could be uniformly and transparently applied to all countries aspiring to become NSG members. Akram observed that an ‘unbridled India in NSG’ would increase its nuclear arsenal at a greater pace and magnitude than it did after the 2008 waiver.

Hence, he added, security concerns would grow for Pakistan. SVI President Dr Zafar Iqbal Cheema said that India’s alone entry into NSG would put back Pakistani efforts for developing its infrastructure and industry by decades. Therefore, he maintained, such an eventuality would have serious consequences for national security and economic and industrial development. He observed that India was one of the worst proliferators, but Pakistan could not capitalise on it. He recalled that India once had scornful disdain for non-proliferation regimes, which has now been conveniently forgotten by the world. Another expert, Zahir Kazmi, worried that if India becomes an NSG member, it would not only veto Pakistani application for admission, but would also affect limited legal cooperation with China.