No special pleadings

Granting India exemption regarding membership of NSG at this point may compromise the fragile regional stability

The US-India nuclear deal that has been operationalised during the visit of President Barack Obama is being fiercely criticised by the Pakistan government, and with some justification. There is further unease and frustration attached to the backing said to have been given by President Obama to the efforts being made by India to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). Taken together, this represent a considerable shift in the regional status quo that has prevailed at least since 2008 and the Prime Minister’s Adviser on National Security and Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz, was firm in his critique of the latest moves saying that they were driven by “political and economic expediencies”, which may in the longer term have a detrimental impact on the stability of the South Asia region generally.



There is a tight set of rules and regulations surrounding membership of the NSG, but discretionary exemptions may be granted. Granting such an exemption to India at this point may compromise the fragile regional stability; as well as feeding through to eroding the credibility of the NSG with the potential to weaken the non-proliferation regime. India and Pakistan have not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and the Pakistan position is that if special pleadings are to be allowed by India, why not allow them for other non-signatories — like Pakistan. The International Atomic Energy Agency approved the India Safeguards Agreement on September 6, 2008 granting that country a waiver at the NSG despite misgivings expressed by other states, which was an unprecedented step. It had sat on the back burner since then, and Australia had expressed concerns in the recent past about its operationalisation. That all seems to have been swept away by the Obama visit. As regards the membership of the Security Council, Pakistan, along with many other nations, regards its reform as long overdue, but with India in violation of various United Nations Security Council resolutions, its moral right to a place on it is deeply compromised. The Pakistan government has every right to feel annoyed at these latest moves, none of which are likely to impact positively on any future peace talks with India.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th,  2015.

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