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Countering China-Pak Deal
India steps up NSG diplomacy

New Delhi, July 25
The US may have come out publicly against the China-Pakistan nuclear deal, but India is not leaving anything to chance and has intensified lobbying with key members of the 46-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) ahead of the nuclear cartel’s next meeting in Vienna.

India has not only zeroed in on the ‘Big 4’ in the NSG - the US, France, Russia and Britain - but is also reaching out to other middling NSG members to project the deal’s negative impact on the fragile security situation in South Asia.

The government has asked its missions in these key NSG countries to convey the pitfalls of the deal, sources close to the government said.

The Indian group in Track II dialogue on the India-US relations on Friday met to firm up a strategy. The Track II group from the Indian side includes veteran diplomats and security experts like Naresh Chandra, former Indian ambassador to the US. Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and the joint secretaries dealing with Pakistan and China, Y.K. Sinha and Gautam Bambawale, respectively, also participated in the discussions.

India’s counter-attack strategy will revolve around three key points.

First, the Chinese deal to supply two additional reactors, Chashma-3 and Chashma 4, was not “grandfathered,” under an earlier arrangement as China claims. China did not disclose two additional reactors at the time of joining the NSG in 2004.Second, Indian interlocutors will argue that there is no comparison between India’s deal with the US to that of China’s with Pakistan as New Delhi was granted the clean waiver on account of its widely acknowledged impeccable non-proliferation record.

Thirdly, India will contend that it’s not an energy deal, but a ploy to contain New Delhi by bolstering Pakistan’s capacity to produce more nuclear weapons. — PTI