ISLAMABAD (APP): International experts and diplomats have condemned Obama administration for supporting Indian bid to become member of Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
Pakistan India NSG membership to be decided in Seoul
Daryl Kimball, Executive Director of Washington D.C. based Arms Control Association (ACA) has condemned the outgoing Obama Administration's desperate attempts to unilaterally bring India within the NSG.
Mr. Kimball stated that "any further country-specific exemptions from NSG guidelines for trade or membership without necessary steps to strengthen non-proliferation and disarmament would increase nuclear dangers in South Asia."
This will "weaken the NSG and broader non-proliferation regime," Daryl Kimball warned.
Earlier, the US, according to various nuclear experts and diplomats, had already created a dangerous and destabilizing precedent by exceptionally supporting Indian NSG waiver in 2008, which allowed New Delhi to rapidly build up its weapon-useable fissile material stocks.
John Carlson from Australia-based `Friends of the Earth' also criticized India and stated that "at the time when Russia and the US have made substantial cuts on nuclear arsenals, and the international community is calling the other nuclear armed countries to join in arms reductions and advance the cause of nuclear disarmament, India is clearly intent on building up its arsenal and is expecting fissile material production for this purpose.
India, Pakistan must be treated equally for NSG membership: Dr Maria Sultan
"This suggests India could be considering a two or three fold increase in its nuclear arsenal. And India has ambitious plans for nuclear armed submarines", he added.
Kamran Akhtar Pakistan's Director General - Arms Control and Disarmament at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs talking to APP endorsed the concerns of the nuclear experts regarding unilateral U.S. support for the Indian entry into NSG and described simultaneous entry of Pakistan and India into NSG as essential for world peace and security.
Mr. Akhtar said that the global nuclear order, in view of Pakistani and Indian simultaneous applications, faces a stark and historic choice. If both Pakistan and India become NSG members, it would help normalize the non-proliferation regime, otherwise it would end all hope of a fair and just international nuclear cooperation for peaceful purposes.
Already the global nuclear non-proliferation regime is heavily criticized for being discriminatory and having strict considerations for Iran and North Korea while treating India and Israel magnanimously.
Does India’s poor nuclear proliferation record merit NSG slot ?
Mr. Kamran also criticized the U.S. and its European allies for their deliberately discrimination between Pakistan and India through distinct and country-specific export control measures.
He described such behavior as discriminatory and destabilizing and a cause for deep concern to various regional and other States.
Ambassador Ali Sarwar Naqvi, who has served as Pakistan's permanent representative at the International Atomic Energy Agency, Professor Zafar Iqbal Cheema - President, Strategic Vision Institute and various diplomats have already expressed their deep concern at the US attempt to prop up India against China by exceptionally making New Delhi a member of NSG and ignoring the fact that New
Delhi is testing Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles, which can hit Europe and massively expanding its unsafeguarded fissile material production.
They have urged the international community to play their due and active role to ensure that the international nuclear cooperation must remain criteria-based and fair in order to maintain world peace and allow all peace-loving nations to progress and achieve prosperity.