'China's help to Pak N-prog inconsistent with NSG commitments'

Addressing the media after his meeting with Chinese Foreign Ministry officials, US Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake yesterday said China's assistance in constructing two more reactors at Chashma nuclear plant in Pakistan's Punjab province was "inconsistent" with its commitments to Nuclear Suppliers Group.

"We expect China to abide by the commitments that it made when it joined the Nuclear Suppliers Group in 2004, and in particular we think the construction of new nuclear reactors such as the Chashma 3 and 4 would be inconsistent with those commitments. That remains our longstanding position," he said answering a question.

US and other NSG countries say that China which assisted Pakistan in building Chashma one and two reactors has not notified its plans to build additional reactors when it joined NSG in 2004, which according to rules of the apex nuclear grouping was a mandatory requirement.

Besides two additional reactors, China last year also announced plans to build mega one gigawatt nuclear reactor for Pakistan.

For its part, China argues that its civil nuclear cooperation with Pakistan was under the guidelines of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which recently gave its nod to Chashma three and four.

Blake said while questioning China's stand, US was in the lead in many cases in trying to help Pakistan to deal with its power crisis by refurbishing existing power generation capacity as well as to "look at new ways" to help Islamabad to meet its energy challenges.

"What I'd like to emphasize is that it's very important that on the one hand China observe its NSG obligations, but on the other hand, that the international community do as much as possible to help Pakistan to meet its energy needs. Again, I think we think there's a lot that can be done in non-nuclear areas that help do that," he said.

He, however, said this issue has not figured in his talks with Chinese officials during his present tour. Blake was asked whether US would reconsider its decision to have civil nuclear energy cooperation with India in the aftermath of the radiation crisis from the damaged Japanese nuclear plant.

"No. We remain very much committed to pursuing civil nuclear cooperation with India. I think it's too early to try to make any judgments about what kind of impact the disaster in Japan is going to have on the civil nuclear industry worldwide, but that obviously is one of the questions that everybody will be looking at," he said.

Asked whether India expressed its concerns to US over China's assistance to Pakistan to build more nuclear plants, Blake said, "not beyond what we've already talked about which is again, to hold Pakistan (sic) to its NSG commitments. I think that's their principal concern as well. "They (Indians) I think also understand that Pakistan has severe energy needs and that this affects internal stability and therefore it's important for all countries to help Pakistan to meet its own energy needs to revive its business and economy."

Blake said he had very productive and constructive discussions with Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping and other officials in the Chinese Foreign Ministry.