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| November 23, 2006 | Thursday | Ziqa'ad 1, 1427 |
China likely to renew N-cooperation pledge
ISLAMABAD, Nov 22: China is expected to renew its commitment to civilian nuclear cooperation with Pakistan despite US pressure on the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to deny such cooperation to all nations except India.
Officials said that the matter would figure in Chinese President Hu Jintao’s talks with Pakistani leaders during his visit to Pakistan beginning on Thursday.
China, which has provided two nuclear powers plants (Chashma I and II), has been requested to provide additional four to six such plants to help meet Pakistan’s energy requirements of 88,000 megawatts by 2030.
Officials dealing with Pakistan's nuclear programme had told reporters up to a month ago that China had agreed to supply four nuclear power plants but Pakistan was asking for six.
So confident was Pakistan of getting through a deal with China similar to the US-India deal that Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) had selected sites for the six new power plants and announced that two would be located on the Arabian Sea coast near Karachi.
Under an agreement signed in 1990, China had helped Pakistan in the construction of 300MW pressurised water reactor at Chashma in the Mianwali district in Punjab which went into operation in 1998 and it was building another 300MW plant at the same site.
China and Pakistan had signed a comprehensive agreement for nuclear cooperation in 1986 which envisaged supply of power plants and cooperation in the research and development of commercial and research reactors.
However, ever since China joined the Nuclear Suppliers Group, it was constrained to abide by the guidelines for the supply of nuclear technology and material to countries who have not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Both Pakistan and India have not signed the NPT and carried out nuclear tests in 1998. However, in April this year, United States concluded a deal for supply of civilian nuclear technology to India and sought exemption from the NSG.
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