U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be in New Delhi this weekend to celebrate a hard-fought nuclear deal that to its critics strikes at the heart of the global non-proliferation regime by allowing India access to nuclear technology despite its refusal to sign the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty (NPT) and give up a weapons programme.
China and Pakistan are not amused although both stepped aside as they watched an unstoppable Bush administration push the deal through the International Atomic Energy Agency and then the Nuclear Suppliers Group in one of its few foreign policy successes.
A commentary in the state-controlled Beijing Review says Pakistan has reason to worry about the deal and recalls a statement put out by the Pakistan Army last month that warned of negative implications for strategic stability in South Asia. It would have been better if the United States had considered a package approach for both India and Pakistan, which conducted its first nuclear weapon tests two weeks after India, the magazine said, quoting the Pakistan Army statement.
China’s own stand, it said, was that all countries are entitled to make peaceful use of nuclear energy and that bodies like the NSG must address the aspirations of all parties. But it described the India-U.S. deal as a turning point which in the long run would have have a profound impact on international non-proliferation efforts.
“Countries on the nuclear threshold might be tempted by the potential rewards of the Indian approach and pursue their nuclear weapon programs with renewed vigor,” it said. “This new perspective might also affect negotiations over the North Korean and Iranian nuclear issues. ”
Within hours of the U.S. Congress clearing the deal by an overwhelming vote, Pakistan’s prime minister was demanding a similar agreement for his country
“Pakistan will also now make efforts for a civil nuclear (deal) and they will have to accommodate us,” Yousaf Raza Gilani said.
And I could’t help thinking about Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s oft-repeated remark way back in the 1960s that Pakistan would eat grass if it had to in order to fund its own nuclear weapons should India go nuclear.
And that’s the way it turned out eventually with the foes developing nuclear weapons programmes that ended in the tests of 1998 that shook the world.
So is Pakistan in a position to embark on a similar project to develop its nuclear capabilities now that it sees its core national interests are again at threat from a nuclear India, backed ironically by its ally the United States?
Pakistan, says former foreign secretary Tanvir Ahmed Khan, needs a coherent strategy and maintaining a credible nuclear deterrent will clearly be a part of it especially if New Delhi now proceeds to build an oversized nuclear arsenal.
And is America’s new nuclear partnership with India going to add another complication to an already difficult engagement with Pakistan? Or will Pakistan, given the multiple pressures it faces, have to live this time with an India that has just won a seat on the nuclear high table ?
Trackback
61 comments so far
Previous | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Next
Everyone knows that India has always acted responsibly towards nuclear non-proliferation and development of nuclear weapons and India deserves to have nuclear energy looking at the booming economy that we have………As for Pakistan they have and will always be in this mad race to compete with India’s growing nuclear capability……….they need to first rid themeselves of supporting terrorism and attain a stable
- Posted by Kushal Chakrabortydemocratic governance before thinking about such a deal.
Say what you want…..Pakistan has always risen to the occassion and kicked the crap out of India 3/4………..both countries teach different histories but reality is………if India is soo powerful then why is Pakistan still on the world map………..and you all are witnessing the biggest cold war in history that is going to develop into World War3…….the worst ever…..there is no denying this reality
- Posted by ahsanthe war will involve America,EU,Britain,India
China,Russia and Pakistan
the life loss would be immense more than the two previous world war put toghether
To all the readers here. This blog is a Pakistan centric blog. There is another blog which is India centric. Just go there and you will see the difference. While in here, whatever happens in Pakistan, India is dragged along. India has a nuclear deal Pakistan also wants one and so on. In the India centric blog… well rarely is Pakistan mentioned. We are not worried about what Pakistan has. For so long Pakistan has been getting F-16s from US.
Those who think India is poor and unstable. Yes India has a large population which lives in Poverty but it has been coming down over the years. And my dear fellows, you will read about BRIC countries. The upcoming major economies, have you heard Pakistan amongst them?
India has a very stable economy and even in these hard times, the economy has been doing reasonably well. As for government, anyone heard of a dictator from India. And what the crap about Paku river.. its hilarious.. whoever imagined that. Check it out my dear the river was called Sindhu in Sanskrit. Since the Persians didn’t have a cognate word, so for them it became Hindu and when Greeks came via Persia, they called it Indus the river which gives India its name. Indus flows largely in Pakistan so Pakistan was once a part of India. Why am I even explaining this?
Anyways, i just want to say that having a different view point is perfectly fine. But please base your views on known facts and please check the facts before showing the world your ignorance.
Its alright if u feel India-US nuclear deal is a blow non-proliferation groups. It may be some people’s views.
I might beg to differ. I would say, why should a few countries be allowed to have nuclear weapons while others are not allowed to?
Why should even US have a nuclear weapon? Destroy them all. And if some countries can have it so can each and every other country. Yes, including Iran. Just like you and I have a different point of view. Similarly Iran may have a different point of view. That doesn’t mean they will start bombing Israel or US. They can’t because they know what will follow such an act will be devastating for them. Democracy calls for rights for everyone. In US most states allow people to own guns. Do the laws there say that a person of such and such view only will be allowed have a more powerful gun? So on a larger scale everyone has a right to have a nuclear weapon. Moreover, nuclear weapons only act as deterrents.
Also, India already has a nuclear weapon, like it or not. Now its is only looking for nuclear power plants and fuel for the same. Anything being supplied to India will be under IAEA supervision. So whats the big deal? India will not be using the imported fuel to build bombs. As a growing economy it needs energy. Why can’t people digest that?
- Posted by AmanThis article is for those who complain/critisize India for human rights violations against minority.
http://www.jstor.org/pss/2060400
- Posted by Sukeshi[...] India-US celebrate nuclear deal;China, Pakistan ask questions Posted by: Sanjeev Miglani [...]
- Posted by Defencedebates’s WeblogThe point that should Pakistan get the same deal as India got? Well, there’s a democratic government installed now. It has to prove itself that all terrorists are driven out and it’s economy and relations with it’s neighbors are all on the smooth run. It’s already a nuclear country so instead of getting the nuclear deal from the backdoor let it have the same but when things improve. How about setting a time frame for this to happen? A decade.
- Posted by RanganathAatif, Look at these proofs..
“In August 1947, at the end of British Raj, the population percentage of Hindus in what is today in Pakistan was perhaps as high as 15-20%, but would drop to its current total of less than 2% in the years since independence. According to the 1998 Pakistan Census, caste Hindus constitute about 1.6 percent of the total population of Pakistan and about 6.6% in province of Sindh. The Pakistan Census separates Schedule Castes from the main body of Hindus who make up a further 0.25% of national population”.
Also, read this
“The increasing Islamisation of Pakistan and antagonism against a majority Hindu India has forced many Hindus to leave Hinduism and convert to other faiths such as Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam[citation needed]. Such Islamisation include the blasphemy laws, which make it dangerous for religious minorities to express themselves freely and engage freely in religious and cultural activities. The promulgation of Sharia, Quranic law has also increased the marginalization of Hindus and other minorities. Following the destruction in 1992 of the Babri Mosque in India, riots and persecution of Hindus in retaliation has only increased; Hindus in Pakistan are routinely affected by communal incidents in India and violent developments on the Kashmir conflict between the two nations. It remains the hope of many that a permanent peace between the two nations will go a long way in making life better for the roughly 3 million Hindus living in Pakistan. The 1998 census recorded 2,443,614 Hindus in Pakistan.”
This is from wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism_in _Pakistan
And regarding india, when we got independence in 1947, Muslims were 5% of the total population and according to the 2001 census, they are more than 25%.
- Posted by JKJK
“The life of a Christian or Muslim in India is far better than the life of a Hindu in Pakistan”
You are not supposed to say this without any proof, have u seen some hindu being raped, or burned on media? (like some minor in India, and I have seen it)
Grow up! saying things like that just because u don’t like Pakistan doesn’t make any sense.
As far as Nuke deal is concerned, Such deals between India and countries like US, Russia or Israel haven’t been any problem for Pakistan, Pakistan can get the balancing package from China anytime, and its been proved several times.
- Posted by AatifReligions are threat of Humanity.Religion pollute human mind.Just imagine a person as a suicide bomb kill innocent people around and himself.
- Posted by Xue ShuTerrorism kills many people around the world.Unfortunately most of the terrorists are muslims.See what happening in Pakistan they aided terrorists.Now terrorists burning their capital.It is double edged sword.Mr.Zardari realized the truth.In interview with WSJ he calls Kshmir militans “terrorists”.While Mushraff called them Freedom Fighters.May be Zardari can eliminate muslim terrorists from his country?
“Anybody who helps India to become stronger is our friend. Be is US or China.”
Manjeet, I agree with you sir. Well said it.
I want to add one more point. The life of a Christian or Muslim in India is far better than the life of a Hindu in Pakistan. ( Dont know they exist now. There were Hindus in Pakistan at the time of partition.)
- Posted by JKTo those who think India has a worrisome track record on human rights.
Yes India has been hit by riots, but tell me which country doesn’t face hate crime?
Yes its a shame it has happened, but in a country of more than 1 billion even if .001% people engage in hate crimes it comes to more than 10 thousand people. And the number of people engaged in such activities are extremely low. So the percentage will be even lesser.
And the riots are condemned not only in the world press, it has absolutely no support in India either. Also, please don’t turn a blind eye to the proselytizing activities of the Christian missionaries and some of the violent activities of Muslims. If these activities stop then Indians have been the most peaceful of all communities. And to put the record straight, India never had communal violence before the advent of Islam and Christianity. The Jews came to India in 500 BC and have never been persecuted, no other country can claim that. The same holds true for Zoroastrians (Parsis) also. Apart from that Buddhism and Jainism have existed peacefully with Hinduism in India. We have never had violent wars or crusades.
And to open your eyes further, the riots in Gujarat were triggered when a train ferrying Hindus from the holy city of Ayodhya was set ablaze by Muslims (This has been proven by an inquiry report). And the riots on Christians happened after one christian priest published inflammatory books on Hindu gods calling them gods of darkness. (This was accepted by Archbishop of India in an interview on CNN-IBN)
Can anyone justify that? And of course when riots happen a larger portion of minorities will suffer due to sheer larger presence of the majority.
If people respect each other and each others customs then these riots will not happen.
India has the second largest Muslim population in the world and a decent number of Christians too, which other country can claim to have that? And except for stray incidents they have had a pretty good life so far. Which other country pays for its minority citizens to go and visit their holy sites abroad? And to think of it the majority don’t get government help to visit their holy sites.
If anyone disputes the facts, then please do a search. Wikipedia will be a nice place to start with.
Now more importantly..
- Posted by AmanWhich country can claim to have had a President or Prime Minister being from a minority?
We have a Sikh Prime Minister. We have had a Muslim President. And We have a woman heading one of the largest political parties in the country and incidently, she happens to be a Christian.
Now my dear world readers, this is called Secularism in the truest sense.
Indo-Us nuclear deal is a civilian deal. India has sufficient bombs to to destroy world (if attacked). How many more bombs we need? None.
This deal has more political impact than business or military. India is not run by one person or a party. Therefore to dictate or use it as proxy is almost impossible. Indians still have to work hard to be at par with other mainstream countries. We should ignore comments from pakistan or china and continue our progressive march. They will listen to India soon.
Anybody who helps India to become stronger is our friend. Be is US or China.
- Posted by ManjeetGUYS
- Posted by IndianThe Ino-US nuclear deal is a “Civil Nuclear Programme”, which shall ‘mainly’ be catered by France’s “Light water Nuclear Technology” for the purpose of decreasing green house gas emmisions & generating electricity only & not some ‘Heavy Bomb Tech” , kindly get your facts right!
Ray is a bong commie, no prize for guessing…
- Posted by Indianhttp://renjithmn.wordpress.com/2008/09/2 9/a-camouflage-nuclear-deal/
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh just got a weapon “A CAMOUFLAGE NUCLEAR DEAL” to distract the public from the fallout of his Government. Some Congressmen bluffs India Remain poorest country since independence because we didn’t have this nuclear deal!!! and it will solve the entire problem we are facing!!!! While some other Madam loyalists bluffs “NUCLEAR DEAL will bring down INFLATION!!!!” What an economics!! Surely that finding should be awarded at the earliest atleast in the coming parliament election. It is 60 years since independence, certain political parties in India still believe as long as India remains illiterate they can SOW and HARVEST. In the coming election the SEED IS THIS MIX OF CAMOUFLAGE NUCLEAR DEAL AND THE LIFE LINE MANTRA -MINORITY APPEASEMENT POLITICS!!!
In the midst of all these drama innocent lives are being lost everyday in intermittent bomb blasts across the country. Terrorists are striking at their own convenience. Terrorists are on the streets waging a war against common men. But the Pseudo secularists, newly discovered double speaking intellectuals, lunatic politicians and politically biased Indian media always come to the conclusion that they are not terrorists but they are forced to do this because of the minority oppression by the so called “Majority Hindus”.
- Posted by Renjith NairCivil nuclear program is a safe and its a useful resources for india and it should be given to All countries and should be monitored by UN .
- Posted by TameemI agree that US is trying to promote war. After all, they need to find some place to sell the weapons they have developed. Today i read a news about US selling $6.5Bn worth military equipments to Taiwan. They don’t even care about what the sh*t happens in Asia. All they want to do is to sell their arms to a country.
If Pakistan wants to be a power in the region, it should act like one. It should implement a democracy first, should be able to control all its military and secret service divisions, should be able to properly control and govern the north western tribal regions and should stop making issues in Kashmir just to cover up their internal issues. You don’t have to worry about how India is caring about its citizens. India is a democracy (unlike its neighbors), and knows very well to take care of its citizens.
- Posted by JKPakistan is a failed and terrorist state.Their government doesn’t have any control to the terrorists.Some porion ruling by terrorists.So it is dangerousto give any technology to Pakistan
- Posted by Xue ShuThis world needs peace! Why are there so many weapon and technology transfer right before the election? Bush and his party fears of losing the election? Oh, no! If Bush is brave and really that righteous, he should wait and let the next US president to decide. Why so hurry? I think many people can observe the fact that the US likes to use one country or one organization to act against another one and take advantages from these dirty tricks! e.g. sell Taiwan and Japan weapons to act against China. e.g. give India nuclear technology and let it act against Pakistan. However, those countries will have a clear mind one day! They will discover that they are tricked into wars and hatred and serious losses. They will join together one day to come to USA for compensation! USA will go bankrupt immediately at that time! If there is not enough money, being nuked can be a result! Horrible! USA is doing horrible things! It is like 9-11! So called terrorists come to ask USA for compensation! Horrible!
- Posted by WorldNeedPeaceI agree Umair that China MAY come in picture helping Pak for Nuclear deal .But I have serious doubts on that…About Pak being strong and united country….its all a false self consoltaion.Actually its becoming a failed state or already a failed state where no one wants to invest or see any oppurtunity for growth. Govt. do have any control over military and various regions of the country.Its really a scary picture.All is a result of narrow India bashing and US thought foreign policy. Sad .
- Posted by RK