ISLAMABAD, Jan 18: The United States understands Pakistan’s desire for civilian nuclear cooperation but wants it to satisfy the global proliferation concerns first.
Sources said on Wednesday that while the Bush administration appeared sympathetic to help Pakistan to generate over 8,000MW of nuclear energy, it insisted that Islamabad should project its case by taking into account the proliferation concerns of the West.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz will take up the issue during his week-long US visit. He would try to convince the US government that there was democracy in Pakistan and that there was no question of extending nuclear cooperation to any country.
Sources said that the prime minister would ask the Bush government to allow American investors to set up nuclear power plants in the “designated nuclear power parks” of Pakistan alone or with the help of the local investors. These parks will operate under full safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and any other international body.
The prime minister would also ask the US leadership that Pakistan was being deprived of civilian nuclear cooperation and that it should be treated on a par with India because of being the friend and a strategic ally of the West in war against terror.
“This issue is on a substantive agenda of talks between the US authorities and the prime minister who has reached New York,” a source said.
Pakistan, he said, was a fast growing economy and wanted to ensure energy security both through nuclear and hydroelectric power. The prime minister will also inform US officials that Pakistan wanted to expand its human resource base and bridge industrial gap for which it required nuclear energy.
Sources said Mr Aziz had taken with him alternate proposals which sought US investment to help set up a number of nuclear power plants in the country.
They said that Pakistan had already sought IAEA’s support to be treated on a par with India by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), which controls developing countries’ access to nuclear technology.
IAEA was aware of Pakistan’s genuine need for nuclear technology to meet its growing demand for energy.
Sources said Pakistan, has, however, been suggested to make sure that nuclear exports were carried out with appropriate safeguards, physical protection and non-proliferation conditions.