پاکستاان لیجر | PAKISTAN LEDGER | پاکستاني کھاتا  | Sept 222nd, 08 | Moin Ansari |  معین آنصآرّی | 

In an orchestrated campaign, the Indian press is goading the world media into expecting a defiant China signing a deal with Pakistan to piss off the world. This is not about to happen. It is unnecessary, it is not called for and it is counterproductive to the China-Pakistan relationship.

Pakistan already has a nuclear deal with China. Pakistan and China work in a very different manner. China has already built Chasnupp 1 and is helping Pakistan build Chasnupp 2. China has also promised larger nuclear plants with Chasnupp 3. China also has assisted Pakistan in missile development. Signing deals under the floodlights of the foreign press is not the China-Pakistan style.

ISLAMABAD: Asif Ali Zardari, the president-elect of Pakistan, will visit China next week to negotiate a nuclear deal similar to the one between India and the US, an official said on Monday.
 

"Pakistan is already in touch with China for the nuclear deal to meet its energy crisis and the talks would start during Zardari's visit," an official said on condition of anonymity.
 

The official said that under the proposed deal, China will supply nuclear material to Pakistan to meet its energy crisis.
 

"This has nothing to do with the US-India deal but that has certainly provided us a way out to meet our energy crisis," he said.
 

For the last many years, Pakistan has failed to meet its growing energy needs and the situation has worsened since November 2007, with the country facing massive power cuts and adopting summer time to benefit the most from daylight and save energy.
 

"Of course it will take time to finalise the deal after going through its details but the initial talks would start during Zardari's visit and a memorandum of understanding (MoU) may be signed for reaching an agreement," said the official.
 

Zardari's visit will coincide with the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games on September 17.

"Zardari will participate in the closing ceremony as well," said the official.
Pakistan and China have a long history of close cooperation that started in early 50s and saw stronger ties during former prime minister and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's era.
 

As foreign minister in military dictator Ayub Khan's government, Bhutto played an active role in bringing Pakistan and China closer when the US was distancing itself from Pakistan in the mid 1960s.
 

In the last three years, there have been 10 state visits by Pakistani officials to China. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was the last top official to visit China last month. In April, former president Pervez Musharraf has also visited the country.

As the controversial nuclear deal between India and the United States moves toward a final review in the U.S. Congress, Pakistan appears to be pushing for a similar deal (IANS) with China. The Bush administration won approval for the India arrangement before the Nuclear Suppliers Group earlier this month, and both Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have been actively lobbying for it at home and abroad. But Washington has ruled out any possibility (PTI) of cutting a similar deal with Pakistan. Many now expect China to step into the void.

Critics of the Indian nuclear deal worry that it may spark a nuclear arms race in South Asia. Michael Krepon of the Stimson Center says international proliferation experts already view past proliferation problems in Pakistan with concern.

Now closer relations between the United States and India, and particularly the potential nuclear deal, may force Islamabad to seek a counterbalance in Beijing. Souring relations between Washington and Islamabad over unilateral U.S. military action inside Pakistan's tribal areas seems to have reaffirmed Pakistan's longheld belief that the United States is an unreliable ally. As this interactive timeline explains, Pakistan and China grew closer in the 1960s as Washington and Islamabad began to part ways over handling regional issues. In particular, Pakistan felt betrayed after the United States cut off aid during its war with India in 1965. Pakistanis also felt spurned in the early 1990s, after Washington ceased using the country as a conduit for arming the anti-Soviet Afghan mujahedeen.

Since then, China has been the cornerstone of Pakistan's foreign policy "because it was the only country that fully identified with its anti-India goals" (YaleGlobal), writes Willem van Kemenade, a visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. As this Backgrounder details, Pakistan relies on China for major military and economic assistance, nuclear and ballistic missile technology, aircraft, and small arms. According to Thomas C. Reed, a former U.S. Air Force secretary, China probably helped Pakistan test a nuclear weapon (Physics Today) inside China in May 1990. Reed adds that this weapon was most likely based on a Chinese design.

Pakistan's questionable record on nonproliferation may also hinder such a pact. Krepon says "there will still be great reluctance on the part of nuclear suppliers to treat Pakistan on the same footing as India." In a recent press conference in New Delhi, U.S. Ambassador to India David C. Mulford ruled out a possible nuclear deal between China and Pakistan.