ACCORDING to Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, France has offered a civilian nuclear technology deal to Pakistan on the same lines as the US-India agreement signed earlier. This announcement is bound to create a lot of excitement not just in Pakistan but also in countries that have strong reservations about Pakistan's nuclear programme. Before discussing the implications of the deal, it is important to point out that there has been no announcement from the French government's side on this issue so far. Exactly what has been offered and on what terms, is not known. However, there are reports that an official from Mr Nicolas Sarkozy's office observed that the French president had confirmed his willingness to “cooperate with Pakistan in the area of nuclear safety”. In the light of this, it appears that the Pakistan government is counting its chickens before they've hatched. The major concern of the nuclear powers at the moment is the security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal and how it can be safeguarded from falling into the hands of militants. This contingency has been debated in strategic circles and evidently came up in Paris as well prompting Mr Qureshi to assure the world that Pakistan is a “responsible nuclear power” that can handle the safety of its nuclear arsenal and proliferation concerns.

Be that as it may, an agreement with France has very far-reaching implications for Pakistan's relations with Paris as well as a number of other countries. Before India tested its nuclear capability in 1974 and Pakistan embarked on its quest for the bomb, Islamabad's nuclear programme enjoyed the support of many foreign powers. In 1976, France had even signed a deal to supply a reprocessing plant to Pakistan, which was subsequently torpedoed when then American national security adviser Henry Kissinger entered the scene threatening to make a “horrible example” out of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Thereafter nothing has been the same again. Pakistan turned to clandestine sources and allies like China for nuclear supplies until it managed to develop nuclear capability indigenously and detonate a bomb in 1998 following in India's footsteps.

If France has now agreed on a deal as the one the US has entered into with India, this amounts to a radical change in the international politics of nuclear proliferation that has a direct bearing on Pakistan. It will be a diplomatic coup of sorts on Mr Zardari's part if France as well as the Nuclear Suppliers' Group that has imposed an embargo on Islamabad actually agree to reverse their stance. This will enhance Pakistan's nuclear credibility by indicating that it can be trusted. A key element in the Indo-American deal is the provision for monitoring 14 civilian reactors by IAEA inspectors, a moratorium on nuclear testing and safeguards to ensure the security of nuclear arms. Would Pakistan agree to these terms?