Waiver to India by NSG a discrimination

Interior Minister Rehman Malik

Islamabad March 23 2011

The Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) created discrimination between haves and have-nots. Now the world is asking Pakistan to stop producing fissile material meaning that they are not  recognising it as a nuclear weapon state, said Federal Minister for Interior Rehman Malik.

He was speaking on the last day of a three-day International Conference on ‘Fissile Material Treaty: Possibility and Prospects’ organised by the South Asian Strategic Stability Institute (SASSI) here on Tuesday. Ayesha Naveed was the stage secretary, while Maria Sultan, director-general of SASSI, chaired the last session.

Rehman Malik said that discrimination is hated all over the world, but the Nuclear Suppliers Group committed it by giving waiver to India. He said that Pakistan over these years experienced discrimination at the hands of major powers.  More >>>

Assistance to India can increase nuclear proliferation

Islamabad March 21 2011

Pakistan’s credible nuclear deterrence will be eroded if world powers continue to assist India with the development of advanced nuclear technology, according to Dr Maria Sultan, a security analyst and the head of the South Asian Strategic Stability Institute (SASSI). 

Sultan suggests that the civilian nuclear assistance being provided to India which she suggests is being provided not just by the United States but also by Britain, France, Japan, Russia, Australia, Canada and New Zealand may very well result in greater nuclear proliferation. “The new trend of selectivity for access to nuclear technology based on commercial interests has increased the possibility of proliferation,” said Sultan in an interview. More >>>

Any discriminatory waiver can push the region into a nuclear arms race

Islamabad March 22, 2011

Dr. Javed Laghari, Chairman of the Higher Education Commission and Patron-in-Charge of the South Asian Strategic Stability Institute, said that any discriminatory waiver would only increase the asymmetry of fissile material stockpiles in South Asia, which not only goes against Pakistan’s security interest but could very easily push the region into a nuclear arms race which is neither desirable nor helpful. 

He was inaugurating the three-day International Conference 2011 on ‘Fissile Material Treaty (FMT): Possibility and Prospects’ organised by the South Asian Strategic Stability Institute (SASSI) here on Sunday night. Maria Sultan, director-general of SASSI, conducted the proceedings.

Dr. Laghari hoped that the conference would justify the need for consensus to start negotiations on FMT, which were central to international non-proliferation and arms disarmament measures and keeping the effectiveness of the Conference of Disarmament (CD) as the custodian of the multilateralism in international arms control negotiations. He said that the CD at this moment was facing a deadlock. He lamented that a new trend of selectivity based on commercial interests was developing which would increase the possibility of proliferation without the fear of costs.

He said this would result in the creation of a new category of nuclear weapon state outside the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which must not only be discouraged but also stopped because it was contradictory to the original bargain of the NPT, and a challenge to national security of member states as well as the international security. More >>>

Pakistan’s nuclear deterrence at risk from selectivity

Pakistan’s credible nuclear deterrence will be eroded if world powers continue to assist India with the development of advanced nuclear technology, according to Dr Maria Sultan, a security analyst and the head of the South Asian Strategic Stability Institute (SASSI).

Sultan suggests that the civilian nuclear assistance being provided to India – which she suggests is being provided not just by the United States but also by Britain, France, Japan, Russia, Australia, Canada and New Zealand – may very well result in greater nuclear proliferation. More >>>

Water Management as Conflict Management

Robert Gates tours China nuclear warfare headquarters

Robert Gates in China

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has visited China's nuclear warfare headquarters, at the end of a four-day visit to try to mend relations between the two militaries. 

"There was a discussion of nuclear strategy," including China's policy of not using nuclear weapons pre-emptively, Mr Gates said.

Officials from both countries praised the visit as a success. Beijing froze military ties last year because of a US arms sales to Taiwan.

The rare view of China's nuclear and missile arsenal was given on a trip to the Second Artillery Corps of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) headquarters.

Both the US and China have long-range missiles capable of reaching each other's shores, but both have said they do not intend to use them. More >>>

China Should Control Pace of Reactor Construction, Outlook Says

China must avoid building too many nuclear power reactors too quickly, the research unit of the State Council, or Cabinet, wrote in Outlook Weekly. 

The country should set a 2020 ceiling on reactors in operation at 70,000 megawatts to avoid a shortfall of fuel, equipment and qualified plant workers, the government-controlled unit said in a commentary in the weekly magazine published by the official Xinhua News Agency.

China is increasing the share of non-fossils fuels in its energy mix to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The country had 9,080 megawatts of nuclear capacity in operation as of 2009 and 21,920 megawatts under construction, the China Electricity Council says.

To lower safety risks, China should focus on developing reactors based on the third-generation AP1000 design instead of older, second-generation technology, according to the commentary. The AP 1000 reactor is manufactured by Westinghouse Electric Co., a unit of Toshiba Corp. More >>>