Pakistan to assume Security Council seat Sunday.

NEW YORK: Pakistan will assume its seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Sunday as a non-permanent member for a two-year term.      

Earlier in October 2011, Pakistan was elected to the 15-nation Council in by a narrow margin contest when 129 out of 193 members of the UN General Assembly voted for it.

Kyrgyzstan, which had challenged Pakistan, was far behind with 55 votes.

Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN, Abdullah Hussain Haroon, who spearheaded the campaign, had said that Pakistan would play a constructive role in resolving key global issues that the Council is dealing with or may face.

He added that Pakistan was committed to multilateralism and promoting the principles and purposes enshrined in the UN Charter.

“We hope to play our usual role of taking on matters which affect the underdog, so as to speak.”

The Security Council, a primary instrument for establishing and maintaining international peace, has five permanent members -Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States – and ten non-permanent members elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms, from five different regions of the world. Pakistan will replace Lebanon, which completes its two-year term on the Asian seat at midnight on Saturday. More

United States as a Global Power: New World Disorder

The US is struggling with a paradox: while its military power retains global reach, its role as world leader is gradually ending

The time has long since past when it became fashionable to talk about a new world order. The collapse of the Soviet Union provided an opportunity to fashion one. But instead of using that opportunity to create a new security architecture in Europe, Nato expanded eastwards as the military anchor for democracy promotion. Not content to have seen off one global military competitor in the Soviet Union, the western military industrial complex and the think-tanks they funded scurried around for a worthy replacement. When 11 September happened, they thought they were in business again. For a brief moment, al-Qaida seemed to fulfil some of the characteristics of communism: it could pop up anywhere in the world; it was an existential enemy, driven ideologically and uncontainable through negotiation; and it was potentially voluminous. Neither the doctrines of the pre-emptive strike, nor attacking a foreign country abroad to ensure security at home, were new. Swap the domino theory of the Vietnam era for the crescent of crisis of the Bush and Obama eras, and you had the same formula for a foe that hopscotched across the globe.

But here's the curious thing. Al-Qaida failed, not by being bombed out of the tribal areas of Pakistan or by losing its video-hugging leader. It failed as an ideological alternative, in its own terms and for its own people. It failed in Egypt, the country that mattered most to its chief thinker, the Egyptian-born doctor Ayman al-Zawahiri. When the opportunity arose for millions of Muslims to shed their brutal Arab yoke (this was supposed to be the fourth phase in the construction of the Caliphate, to be accompanied by physical attacks against oil suppliers and cyber ones on the US economy), nothing of the sort happened. Islam is indeed winning the day, but it is political rather than military. It seeks alliances with the apostate and says it is committed to democratic partnership and the rule of law. More

Ron Paul: Sanctions Against Iran Are an ‘Act of War’

December 30, 2011 "ABC News" - -Unwilling to back down from the growing criticism that his foreign policy would be “dangerous,” Ron Paul told voters in Iowa that western sanctions against Iran are “acts of war” that are likely to lead to an actual war.

Paul said that Iran would be justified in responding to sanctions by blocking the Straits of Hormuz, adding that the country blocking the strategically important strait is “so logical” since they have no other recourse.

He then compared the situation to China blocking off the Gulf of Mexico to trade.

“I think the solution is to do a lot less a lot sooner, and mind our own business, and we wouldn’t have this threat of another war,” Paul said.

Paul made the comments to a crowd of 100 people in Perry, Iowa, the first stop on his two-day campaign swing through the western part of the state.

The Texas congressman is not backing down from his view that a strike on Iran would cause economic hardship at home.

“If the Straits of Hormuz close, this whole financial thing could come down on our head. What would happen if oil doubled in price within a month or two?” Paul asked a crowd in Atlantic, Iowa.

Thursday was a tough day for Paul, beginning with a scathing editorial in the New Hampshire Union-Leader calling the Texas congressman a “dangerous man” who has been consistently spouting “nonsense,” adding, “it is about time New Hampshire voters showed him the door.” More

RE-IMAGINING THE INDUS: MAPPING MEDIA REPORTAGE IN INDIA AND PAKISTAN

Water shortage has become a subject of intense public debate in the present political narrative on resource management and riparian rights.

 

In an attempt to discern the divergence on core issues and mainstream media reporting, Re-imagining the Indus is a methodological study based on Media Content Analysis of the reporting on water issues related to the Indus, in the leading dailies of both India and Pakistan. This monograph seeks to capture the existing discourse and stimulate policy dialogue on the subject.
What is the general discourse on water scarcity and related crises in the Indian and Pakistani media? The study conducted by Samir Saran (ORF) and Hans Rasmussen Theting, scrutinised the media coverage on water on three specific themes – the political discourse, water governance and people, practice and environment.
Titled ‘Reimagining the INDUS: Mapping media reportage in India and Pakistan’, the study found that the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) does not dominate the reportage in Pakistan, indicating a low level of discontentment or critique. It also found that it is only in the months of winter, when the water flow is low, that inter-country dispute between India and Pakistan, and significant negative sentiment against India, gets attention in Pakistan. But in the Indian media, Pakistan only appears during spring months. More

The study, now published in the form of a book, found that agricultural concerns and inter-provincial disputes dominate media reportage in Pakistan while in India media lays greater emphasis on urban water concerns and interventions, including ground water and domestic consumption.

The study also showed that media reports in both the countries, Pakistan more than India, recognise the need for the two countries to cooperate on water issues. From the study, it was also clear that in both India and Pakistan, there is equal emphasis on the aspects of water governance and infrastructure. More

Keeping Iran From Saying Yes

Imagine that you are a senior adviser to the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and have decided that sanctions and other pressures on Iran have accomplished exactly what they ostensibly are designed to do (to the extent that any such presumed purpose of the pressure can be discerned from what is coming out of Washington [3]): to change minds among policy makers in Tehran about Iran's nuclear activities. 

You, the adviser, have concluded that the pressures are sufficiently damaging to Iranian interests that Iran ought to make whatever policy changes are needed to get the pressure to stop. What, exactly, do you advise your boss to do? 

As you contemplate that question, you realize there are several conditions that would have to be met in order for any advice you gave not to be rejected immediately and categorically, if not by the supreme leader himself then by others in the regime who have a say in shaping policy. Whatever step you recommend would have to be politically feasible, which also means being psychologically feasible for the leader, for other Iranian policy makers and for the Iranian public. There also would have to be some mechanism for reaching an understanding or agreement with the Americans, given that ending the U.S.-led pressure would be the whole purpose of changing policy. Closely related to that last requirement, you would also need to point to good reason to believe that if Tehran did change policy, the United States would indeed end the pressure.

After carefully reflecting on all this, you would have to decide that—as long as the policies and discourse you hear coming from the United States remain as they are—the requirements cannot be met. The United States has made it almost impossible for Iran to say yes to whatever it is the United States is supposedly demanding of Iran. You quietly drop the idea of recommending to the supreme leader any change of policy. More

Happy New Year from SASSI

Seychelles: An Open Invitation for China

On December 3^rd 2011, as part of a ‘goodwill’ trip to the Indian Ocean island nation of Seychelles, Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie met with Seychelles President James Michel and announced a boost in military cooperation between the two states. It was the first time a Chinese defense minister had visited the islands in the nations’ 36 years of ‘uninterrupted partnership’.

During the trip, Michel announced that the island republic would officially invite China to establish a military base there to help with its ramping up of efforts to combat piracy. The Republic of Seychelles spans an archipelago of over 100 islands approximately 1,500 kilometers off the eastern coast of Africa, just north of the island nation of Madagascar. Despite efforts by the international community and the constant patrolling of warships, this region is still heavily affected by organized (and unorganized) piracy by non-state actors.

Foreign Affairs Minister of Seychelles, Jean-Paul Adam, stated, “Together, we need to increase our surveillance capacity in the Indian Ocean [...] as Seychelles has a strategic position between Asia and Africa.” According to one report by Agence France-Presse, Seychelles and China signed on to a military cooperation agreement in 2004 which “has enabled some 50 Seychelles soldiers to be trained in China.” Adam reminded the media that China has already given two light aircraft to the Republic, with the visit by Liang signaling a renewed agreement with China for increased financial support, military equipment and further military training. Chinese media reiterated Seychelles’ adherence to the One-China policy. More 

A World of Gray

CANBERRA – Václav Havel, the Czech playwright and dissident turned president, and North Korean despot Kim Jong-il might have lived on different planets, for all their common commitment to human dignity, rights, and democracy. When they died just a day apart this month, the contrast was hard for the global commentariat to resist: Prague’s prince of light against Pyongyang’s prince of darkness.

But it is worth remembering that Manichaean good-versus-evil typecasting, to which former US President George W. Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair were famously prone, and of which we have had something of a resurgence in recent days, carries with it two big risks for international policymakers.

One risk is that such thinking limits the options for dealing effectively with those who are cast as irredeemably evil. The debacle of the United States-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 should have taught us once and for all the peril of talking only through the barrel of a gun to those whose behavior disgusts us.

Sometimes, threats to a civilian population will be so acute and immediate as to make coercive military intervention the only option, as with Muammar el-Qaddafi’s Libya, at least at the time of the imminent assault on Benghazi in March. But more often it will be a matter of relying on less extreme measures, like targeted sanctions and threats of international prosecution – and on diplomatic pressure and persuasion. More

Obama should apologize

ISLAMABAD – In the wee hours of Nov. 27, U.S.-NATO and Afghan forces based in Afghanistan's Kunar province engaged a Pakistani military outpost in Pakistan's tribal agency of Momand. Little information is publically available -- or likely to be -- about what happened or how. What is clear is that after several NATO airstrikes, 24 Pakistani soldiers were dead and many more injured. The episode, and the U.S. response, battered the ever-strained U.S.-Pakistan relationship. Pakistan immediately cut off ground routes for logistical support of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, and insisted that the United States vacate Shamsi, one of the airfields from which the U.S. launched drone attacks.

In quick succession, Pakistan convened a parliamentary commission to determine whether and how Pakistan will remain engaged with the United States. Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs recalled all of its ambassadors to hold a high-level strategic discussion about how Pakistan should refashion its relations with the United States. Their recommendations will be considered by the same parliamentary commission. Pakistanis, whether civilian or military, whether in the government or on the street, want out of this relationship and deeply believe that Americans do not value Pakistani lives. They may not be wrong.

Pakistani military officials quickly denounced the attack as deliberate, unprovoked U.S. aggression and demanded both an immediate apology and a renegotiation of military and intelligence cooperation. That Pakistani officials made such pronouncements in the complete absence of information about the attack cast aspersions on their motives. The move appeared to be another effort to wriggle free fromWashington's poisonous embrace, abandon military operations against anti-Pakistan militants, and pursue an independent Afghan policy. More

Release of Pakistan/Afghanistan Cross-Border Fire Investigation Report

Release of Pakistan/Afghanistan Cross-Border Fire Investigation Report

MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (December 26, 2011) — The U.S. Central Command investigation into the Nov. 25-26 engagement between U.S. and Pakistan Military Forces near Salala Checkpoint, Khas Kunar Province, Afghanistan is complete.  The report can be found by clicking here. The Table of Contents can be found by clicking here. Click here for Annexes:A, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J. Click here for Brig. Gen. Clark'sAppointment Letter. Specifically, U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James N. Mattis, U.S. Central Command Commander directed ISAF Commander Gen. John Allen to implement the following corrective actions as soon as operationally possible: Establish an environment of improved, mutual trust among stakeholders working in the border areas expanding upon existing confidence-building measures.   Clarify authorities, responsibilities, and standard operating procedures for Command, Control and Communication in near-border operations.  Develop formal individual training, collective training exercises and drills to practice and gain confidence with cross-border coordination and deconfliction.   Implement a program of full disclosure of all border area facilities and installations – including installations on both sides of the border with systematic updates based on a common data base and map, and incorporating periodic reciprocal coordination visits.   Direct all future Coalition units and formations contemplating near-border area operations to establish positive confirmation of all permanent/semi-permanent installations located near both the boarder and planned objective prior to the conduct of any operation or approval of any CONOP.   Develop and share with Pakistan Military if possible the common use of force escalation measures such as show of force and such other standard procedures as needed to prevent friendly fire incidents.   Consider harmonizing, where feasible, ISAF and OEF Rules of Engagement to promote clarity and transparency.   “The strongest take-away from this incident is the fundamental fact that we must improve border coordination and this requires a foundational level of trust on both sides of the border,” said Gen. Mattis. More

Pakistan, India to resume nuclear CBM's today

Pakistan and India will resume talks on confidence-building measures (CBMs) regarding nuclear and conventional weapons on Monday. 

Senior Indian diplomats, Yash Sinha and Venkatesh Varma, will lead the Indian delegation to Islamabad for the two-day talks. The Pakistani side will be led by Munawar Saeed Bhatti, former deputy high commissioner to India. 

The talks, which are resuming after a gap of four years, indicate that the dialogue process between India and Pakistan is back on track. 
CBMs on conventional weapons will be discussed on Monday, while nuclear weapons will be discussed the next day. 
The talks are not ambitious in their scope, and the two sides are expected to talk about expanding conventional CBMs to include incidents at sea. This was necessitated after Indian and Pakistani ships brushed past each other in 2010, which could have gotten ugly. There will be more talks on facilitating trade and movement of people across the Line of Control, and some military issues. Pakistan has moved over 100,000 troops from its border with India to fight the war on terror along the border with Afghanistan. 
On nuclear CBMs, while India and Pakistan notify each other on ballistic missile launches, cruise missiles remain outside this arrangement. Secondly, the two countries may even discuss the issues of nuclear safety, especially in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan, which has prompted a safety rethink all over the world. On January 1, India and Pakistan will again exchange lists of nuclear installations, probably the oldest India-Pak CBM that has survived. More 

ICIMOD Reports Warn of Vulnerabilities of the HKH Region to Climate Change

6 December 2011: Three new reports released by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) warn that snow and glacier melt in Asia’s mountainous Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region threaten millions of mountain people and 1.3 billion people living downstream in Asia’s major river basins.

The report titled "The Status of Glaciers in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan Region" presents findings of a three-year research project funded by Sweden and led by ICIMOD, which through the use of remote sensing studies was able to tally the number of glaciers in the region—more than 54,000—and measure the area covered, 60,000 km. According to the report, glaciers appear to be shrinking in both the central and eastern Himalayas, with clean glaciers of the Tibetan plateau retreating at a faster rate than the glaciers of the rugged central Himalayas.

The second report, titled "Snow-Cover Mapping and Monitoring in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas," provides a comprehensive status report of snow cover in the region. According to the report, there was an indication of an overall decrease in snow cover over the decade in the central HKH region and overall, and a slight increase in the western and eastern parts of the region.

The third report, titled "Climate Change in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas: The State of Current Knowledge," reviews the research and data on climate and hydrology, biodiversity and ecosystems, and atmospheric changes and overall provides a snapshot on the changes that have occurred in the HKH region. [ICIMOD News] [Publication: The Status of Glaciers in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan Region] [Publication: Snow-Cover Mapping and Monitoring in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas] [Publication: "Climate Change in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas: The State of Current Knowledge] More

Dinner hosted by the South Asian Strategic Stability Institute on the occasion of the Twenty Sixth Anniversary of SAARC

Dinner hosted by the South Asian Strategic Stability Institute in Islamabad, Pakistan on the occasion of the Twenty Sixth Anniversary of The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)

US admits mistakes over killings of Pakistan troops

The US military has admitted it bears significant responsibility for last month's air strike on the Afghan border that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

A statement said US and Afghan troops acted in self defence, but conceded there had been a lack of proper co-ordination with Pakistani forces. BBC correspondents say the admission is expected to embarrass the US military.

In retaliation for the killings, Pakistan has closed its border with Afghanistan, cutting Nato supply lines.

There was no immediate response from Pakistan to the findings of the US investigation. Pakistan, a vital partner in the fight against militants in the region, has demanded a formal US apology.

'Incorrect mapping'

In the statement the US once again expressed its deepest regret for the "tragic loss of life" caused by the air strike in Mohmand tribal agency on 26 November. "Inadequate co-ordination by US and Pakistani military officers operating through the border co-ordination centre - including our reliance on incorrect mapping information shared with the Pakistani liaison officer - resulted in a misunderstanding about the true location of Pakistani military units," it said.

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We cannot operate effectively on the border... without addressing the fundamental trust still lacking between us”

US Department of Defense

"This, coupled with other gaps in information about the activities and placement of units from both sides, contributed to the tragic result."

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal with more details, US and Afghan commandos made a series of mistakes on 26 November.

They incorrectly concluded there were no Pakistani forces in the Afghan border area where the coalition was conducting an operation - which cleared the way for a Nato air strike that devastated Pakistani positions.

After the initial strike, the US compounded its mistake by providing inaccurate data to a Pakistani military representative at a border co-ordination centre, missing an opportunity to stop the fighting.

The report says the 150-man US and Afghan commando team came under attack from positions along a ridge. The team requested a show of force from the air, wrongly understanding from a radio transmission from Nato that there were no Pakistani military in the area. More

The Pakistani's have a point

As an American visitor in the power precincts of Pakistan, from the gated enclaves of Islamabad to the manicured lawns of the military garrison in Peshawar, from the luxury fortress of the Serena Hotel to the exclusive apartments of the parliamentary housing blocks, you can expect three time-honored traditions: black tea with milk, obsequious servants and a profound sense of grievance.

Talk to Pakistani politicians, scholars, generals, businessmen, spies and journalists — as I did in October — and before long, you are beyond the realm of politics and diplomacy and into the realm of hurt feelings. Words like “ditch” and “jilt” and “betray” recur. With Americans, they complain, it’s never a commitment, it’s always a transaction. This theme is played to the hilt, for effect, but it is also heartfelt.

“The thing about us,” a Pakistani official told me, “is that we are half emotional and half irrational.”

For a relationship that has oscillated for decades between collaboration and breakdown, this has been an extraordinarily bad year, at an especially inconvenient time. As America settles onto the long path toward withdrawal from Afghanistan, Pakistan has considerable power to determine whether the end of our longest war is seen as a plausible success or a calamitous failure. There are, of course, other reasons that Pakistan deserves our attention. It has a fast-growing population approaching 190 million, and it hosts a loose conglomerate of terrorist franchises that offer young Pakistanis employment and purpose unavailable in the suffering feudal economy. It has 100-plus nuclear weapons (Americans who monitor the program don’t know the exact number or the exact location) and a tense, heavily armed border with nuclear India. And its president, Asif Ali Zardari, oversees a ruinous kleptocracy that is spiraling deeper into economic crisis. More

New Armed Stealth Drone Heads to Afghanistan (And Maybe Iran, Too)

The U.S. Air Force is sending a single copy of a brand-new stealth drone to Afghanistan. Only maybe notjust Afghanistan.

Officially, the General Atomics-made Avenger — a sleek, jet-powered upgrade of the iconic armed Predator and Reaper — is heading to Afghanistan as a combat-capable “test asset.” The Air Force said in a statement that it loves how the Avenger’s “internal weapons bay and four hardpoints on each wing,” will give it “greater flexibility and will accommodate a large selection of next generation sensor and weapons payloads,” as reported by Zach Rosenberg at Flightglobal.

Problem is, you don’t really need those things in Afghanistan. Weapons bays are for stealth: most warplanes don’t have them. And it’s not like the Taliban has been firing radar-guided missiles at NATO aircraft. Besides, there are already dozens of armed drones in Afghanistan. One more isn’t going to make much of a difference.

Which begs the question: Is the 41-foot-long Avenger really meant for Afghanistan? Or is it destined to patrol over Afghanistan’s unruly neighbors, Iran and Pakistan, both of which do have radar-guided missiles? That was a job assigned to the Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel before one of those dronescrashed in Iran two weeks ago. We’re sure the Air Force has a few more RQ-170s to throw at Iran and Pakistan. After all, the elusive ‘bots have been spotted in Afghanistan, South Korea and Japan. But the Avenger, which debuted just two years ago, is newer and more capable than the Sentinel, which is widely believed to be a product of the early 2000s.

The Avenger reportedly carries a ground-mapping radar and the same ultra-sophisticated cameras as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, making it a perfect candidate for quietly snooping above, say, suspected nuclear facilities or terrorist camps guarded by air-defense radars and missiles. And for a psychological impact, there’s nothing like an advanced, armed stealth drone to put a dent in Iran’s swagger after Tehran captured an apparently intact RQ-170. More

Mercenaries (Blackwater / XE) May Run Air Missions on Afghan-Pakistan Border

Barely two weeks after a NATO helicopter disaster killed 24 Pakistani troops, the skies above the Afghanistan-Pakistan border may get even more dangerous. The State Department’s Islamabad embassy is hiring a contractor to coordinate air operations along the border to stop the flow of drugs and insurgents.Just what a tense situation calls for.

The new “aviation adviser” will oversee both the State Department’s “fleet of … aircraft” in Pakistan, which isn’t very often discussed, and provide “aviation support” to the Pakistani Frontier Corps, which patrols the tribal areas. The “end game” of the adviser’s mission is “interdicting the movement of illegal drugs, arms and people across the border,” not exactly a diplomatic specialty.

It’s unclear what kind of aircraft the State Department has in Pakistan. It’s also unclear whether State will help the Frontier Corps maintain its own aircraft or actually provide air support for the corps, a much more dramatic step. Either way, the department’s call for the “aviation adviser” comes at a time when U.S. generals accuse the Frontier Corps of helping insurgents attack U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Judging from a contract solicitation released on Thursday, the aviation adviser’s life in Pakistan will be a rugged one. The adviser “must be able to independently perform fieldwork in remote areas for extended periods without assistance,” the contract reads. “Some field sites have been declared hazardous duty locations by the Department of State due to hostile activities of armed groups within Pakistan and therefore pose significant risk to the incumbent while at these sites.”

And the operations themselves do not sound very diplomatic. The Frontier Corps has long possessed a mandate to stop the flow of drugs across the border — and performed pretty badly, from the U.S.’s perspective. Not only is the border porous for insurgents, but two Pakistani factories produce a total of400,000 metric tons annually of ammonium nitrate, a material commonly found across the border in Afghan homemade bombs.

Into that breach steps contractors for the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. In the past, the bureau has provided aviation support in Colombia, another partner nation racked by narcoterrorism. In Colombia, the bureau merely trained the Colombian military in air operations; judging from the job solicitation, missions in Pakistan sound more, um, direct.

It also comes at the intersection of two trends. First, the State Department is beefing up its security contractor presence in Pakistan: It put out a call last week for Pakistani embassy guards. Second, the relationship between Washington and Islamabad is spiraling downward after last month’s helicopter accident, with the very Frontier Corps that the aviation adviser will work with getting yanked off the border.

State is about to send even more security contractors into that hostile environment. What could possibly go wrong? More

SASSI Delegates Attend OPCW Conference of States Parties 16

The Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention held its Sixteenth Session at the World Forum Convention Centre (WFCC), located next door to the headquarters of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), at Churchillplein 10, The Hague, the Netherlands, from Monday, 28 November to Friday, 2 December 2011. 


A three person delegation from SASSI attended. The delegation consisted of Khadija Sharief and Shakir Baacha  from the Islamabad office and Nick Robson from the London headquarters.

Shakir Baacha and Nick Robson with the Pakistani Delegation to the OPCW

The South Asian Strategic Stability Institute is a member of the Chemical Weapons Convention Coalition (CWCC) and sits on the Advisory Committee of the organization. See list of CWCC members attending CPO 16 here.

Pakistan a potential uranium customer, says Ziggy Switkowski

AUSTRALIA will have to consider selling uranium to Pakistan in the future after agreeing to export it to India, according to nuclear expert Dr Ziggy Switkowski.

The assessment came as Pakistan demanded the same treatment as its nuclear neighbour, which Labor has agreed to export uranium to despite India's refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Dr Switkowski, a nuclear physisist and former head of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, said Pakistan wasn't yet ready to be considered as a buyer of Australian uranium.

But he said that “down the line that will need to be considered”. “Pakistan is handicapped by its less than impressive history in the whole nuclear space, having traded nuclear secrets to unstable regimes, in Iran, in Libya and North Korea,” he said.

“It also has a miniscule civilian nuclear power program - I think they have two reactors. “So, at this stage it is very much a hypothetical. “But over time, as they gain the confidence of the international community and the civilian nuclear program builds, they will need to be considered.”

Pakistani High Commissioner to Australia Abdul Malik Abdullah said Pakistan should also be able to buy Australian yellowcake. “If Australia is going to lift the ban on a country which has not signed NPT it is much hoped that will also apply to Pakistan the same way,” he told ABC radio.

Mr Abdullah said Pakistan has not made a request to buy Australian uranium, but this could change in the future. “In that case we will hope that we will also be treated at par with other non-NPT signatories,” he said. More