At the Hague Nuclear Security Summit in March 2014, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called for “Pakistan’s inclusion in all worldwide export control regimes, especially the Nuclear Suppliers Group”. According to details, the USA is concerned that Pakistan could be on the verge of deploying a small weapon that would be far harder to secure than its larger weapons. The treaty bars nations from building or possessing nuclear warheads.
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The discussions are being led by Peter R. Lavoy, a longtime intelligence expert on the Pakistani programme and who is now on the staff of the National Security Council.
C Christine Fair, Associate Professor at the Georgetown University, said a few years ago she had proposed a civilian nuclear deal that also dealt with Pakistan’s use of terrorists as a tool of its foreign policy.
“And I would anticipate that dialogue would include conversations between the leaders of our two countries”. White House officials declined to comment on the talks ahead of Sharif’s visit.
A report released in August by the Carnegie Endowment of worldwide Peace and the Stimson Center found that Pakistan is rapidly expanding its nuclear capabilities out of fears of neighboring rival India’s capabilities.
When Libya turned over the equipment it bought, in late 2003, it included an almost complete design for one of China’s first nuclear weapons. But until now, most efforts to manage the problem have been covert.
Pakistan-watchers in Washington do not think that the proposal for a nuclear deal for Pakistan would fructify anytime soon, and even if it does materialise, it will come with a number of conditionalities, many of them unacceptable to the Pakistan Army, the custodian of the country’s nuclear arsenal. However, smaller weapons could get in hands of any militant organisation. But even without a nuclear deal, Pakistan has more nuclear warheads than India.
“At this point, the United States has been engaged with Pakistan, as well as the rest of the worldwide community on issues related to nuclear safety and security”, Earnest said.
Ordinarily, any country’s refusal to sign the treaty would preclude American nuclear cooperation. A chief USA concern is to cap the number of Pakistani nuclear weapons and limit the capability of Pakistani delivery systems so that they can strike no farther than India.
Finally, unlike what a few Indian analysts argue, a U.S.-Pakistan civilian nuclear deal will make absolutely no difference to India’s national security interests.
“I was told by a senior Pakistani official that the concept was floated by (former Director General ISI Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja) Pasha and he rejected it. Unfortunately, this has not been made public”.
That does not appear to be on the table.
In May United States officials said that Saudi Arabia was in talks with Pakistan to purchase nuclear weapons. That would be largely symbolic: Pakistan manages to import or make what it needs for its nuclear arsenal, and China has already broken ground on a $9.6 billion nuclear power complex in Karachi.
What should New Delhi’s response be to a potential nuclear deal between the United States and Pakistan that could eventually mainstream the latter into the global nuclear order?
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The New York Times, citing anonymous officials and outside experts familiar with the talks, reports that the U.S.is exploring a deal with Pakistan, whose nuclear program is the fastest-growing on earth.
