International experts condemn US for backing Indian NSG bid

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International experts and diplomats have condemned Obama administration for supporting Indian bid to become a member of Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

Daryl Kimball, Executive Director of Washington DC based Arms Control Association (ACA) has condemned the outgoing Obama administration’s desperate attempts to unilaterally bring India within the NSG.

Kimball stated that “any further country-specific exemptions from NSG guidelines for trade or membership without necessary steps to strengthen non-proliferation and disarmament would increase nuclear dangers in South Asia.”

This will “weaken the NSG and the broader non-proliferation regime,” Daryl Kimball warned.

Earlier, the US, according to various nuclear experts and diplomats, had already created a dangerous and destabilising precedent by exceptionally supporting Indian NSG waiver in 2008, which allowed New Delhi to rapidly build up its weapon-useable fissile material stocks.

John Carlson from Australia-based Friends of the Earth also criticised India and stated that “at the time when Russia and the US have made substantial cuts in nuclear arsenals, and the international community is calling the other nuclear-armed countries to join in arms reductions and advance the cause of nuclear disarmament, India is clearly intent on building up its arsenal and is expecting fissile material production for this purpose.

“This suggests India could be considering a two or three fold increase in its nuclear arsenal with ambitious plans for nuclear-armed submarines”, he added.

Kamran Akhtar, Pakistan’s Director General – Arms Control and Disarmament at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, talking to APP endorsed the concerns of the nuclear experts regarding unilateral support for the Indian entry into NSG and described simultaneous entry of Pakistan and India into NSG as essential for world peace and security.

Akhtar said that the global nuclear order, in view of Pakistani and Indian simultaneous applications, faces a stark and historic choice. If both Pakistan and India become NSG members, it would help normalise the non-proliferation regime, otherwise, it would end all hope of a fair and just international nuclear cooperation for peaceful purposes.

Already the global nuclear non-proliferation regime is heavily criticised for being discriminatory and having strict considerations for Iran and North Korea while treating India and Israel magnanimously.

Kamran also criticised the US and its European allies for their deliberate discrimination between Pakistan and India through distinct and country-specific export control measures.

Ambassador Ali Sarwar Naqvi, who has served as Pakistan’s permanent representative at the International Atomic Energy Agency, Professor Zafar Iqbal Cheema , president of  Strategic Vision Institute, and various diplomats have already expressed their deep concern at the US attempt to prop up India against China by exceptionally making New Delhi a member of NSG, and ignoring the fact that New Delhi is testing inter-continental ballistic missiles and massively expanding its unsafeguarded fissile material production.

They have urged the international community to play an active role to ensure that the international nuclear cooperation must remain criteria-based in order to maintain peace and achieve prosperity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

4 COMMENTS

  1. India was the main primary culprit to introducing Nuclear weapons in South Asia by exploiting their Civil Nuclear capabilities. Why should the main culprit be allowed to join? Favoritism, maybe?

  2. You must be joking. First of all, on what basis you can allow any country to possess nuclear weapons? As per CTBT, you are not allowed to test nuclear weapons after September 1969. All the major countries tested their weapons before 1969. And just because India tested their weapon in 1974 they were 4 years late in becoming nuclear. Indian stand is principally correct and straight, either all the nations give up their nuclear weapons or India will have a nuclear weapon too, perfect. India doesn't give a damn what Pakistan thinks or does, India makes its own policy. Pakistan always act like a copy cat, they haven't any principle stand on anything. On what face they even demand any respect on nuclear front, their record is atrocious. They were the one who sold the technology illegally to Iran and North Korea. Grow up. And if you want something then demand it at your worth, don't cry just because India is doing well.

    • I think you need to know that NSG was formed in response to India's 1974 nuclear test. So accepting India in NSG is nothing other than hypocrisy. And demanding an equal criteria for non-npt members addition to NSG by Pakistan is quite sensible.

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