China-Pak nuclear deal: ‘India opened a Pandora’s box’

[bananas]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Sino-Pak-N-deal-hits-Indias-NSG-chances/articleshow/6076685.cms

China-Pak nuclear deal: ‘India opened a Pandora’s box’
Indrani Bagchi, TNN, Jun 22, 2010, 02.39am IST

NEW DELHI: The proposed China-Pakistan nuclear deal could spell trouble for India's own membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, severely upsetting the calculations of the government here.

India had hoped that the New Zealand plenary meeting scheduled for later this week might move the process along for India to be eventually recognized as a formal member of the group.

<snip>

Instead, there is a growing anger, albeit impotent, within the 45-member group as they confront a virtual fait accompli by China "informing" them of its decision to build two new nuclear reactors for Pakistan, a proliferation rogue. But such is the growing clout of China internationally that, Indian officials say, there is a lot of grumbling, but little outright opposition. The US so far is the only country to openly oppose the proposed arrangement, but that too happened after the Iran sanctions vote in the UN Security Council, where China's cooperation was crucial. France, sources said, is likely to raise its own objections at the NSG meeting later this week.

<snip>

China is unlikely to ask for a full waiver for Pakistan from the NSG, along the lines of the India deal. That would require a huge amount of political investment of the kind the US made for India. Instead, China is likely to push these two reactors through under a kind of diplomatic amnesia because there is a paper trail that says only two reactors in Pakistan had been "grandfathered" by China. With China becoming more muscular in international politics, this kind of a "thin-end-of-the-wedge" kind of deal might just go through.

<snip>

A lot of the anger of countries like Austria, Ireland and the Scandinavian countries against the China-Pakistan deal is directed against India. "You opened a Pandora's box," many countries have said accusingly. India received a country-specific waiver from the NSG in 2008 for nuclear commerce, but it was a bitter pill for many countries for whom the existing non-proliferation regime is a national mantra, including, ironically New Zealand, where the China-Pak deal is likely to be discussed.

<snip>