What its scuttling of India’s NSG bid reveals about
Pakistan
At least three strands are
apparent in Pakistan's reaction to the developments leading up to, and
following, the Seoul meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
One, there is a lot of jubilation and chest-thumping that India
has been denied entry into the NSG despite its aggressive diplomacy and once
again "parity" between the two neighbours has been retained. There is
glee that Pakistan applied for membership at the eleventh hour on 18 May, the
deadline for applying. This effectively scuttled India's entry into the NSG
because had Pakistan not applied, India could have had an easier time at the
plenary meeting.
Pakistan's "principled" position (tailored to mirror China's)
is that it is opposed to "country-specific exemptions"; it wants a
level-playing field and a "criteria-based" approach for NSG
membership. Islamabad wanted its application for NSG membership considered
alongside India's to ensure strategic stability in South Asia.
Pakistan's attitude was possibly best summed up in an article in The
Express Tribuneclaiming that the non-proliferation regime had become
stricter due to India's peaceful nuclear test in 1974, but in a twist of fate
"it now wants to rehabilitate the thief and make it a sheriff without the
latter changing its habits".
However, realists in the Pakistani establishment have cautioned that
they should not get carried away by its "success" in foiling India's
bid at Seoul. They have pointed out that India enjoys much greater support in
the NSG as compared to Pakistan. They have also noted that the NSG waiver that
India got with the US support in 2008 provides it most of the benefits that an
NSG membership would. Finally, they also realise that the US is likely to
continue to press for Indian exceptionalism in nuclear energy development.
FRIENDS FOREVER
Two, Pakistan's "all-weather" friendship with China
has been reinforced. Pakistan has noted with great satisfaction China's
assurance that it would stress that in case the NSG members made an exception
for India, they should do the same for Pakistan. In other words, if India
became an NSG member, so would Pakistan. China's insistence on Pakistan's
inclusion was justified as being essential to putting in place a
non-discriminatory criterion for offering NSG membership: all interested states
should be asked to sign the NPT first because exempting any nation from this
would weaken the entire non-proliferation regime.
If exemptions are to be made, then the group must agree on a
criteria for admission of non-NPT states with no arbitrary "selectivity or
exclusion". In this manner, China has signaled that Pakistan could
piggyback on the Indian application to become a member of the NSG.
JILTED
FRIEND
Three, and most significant, is the feeling of hurt over the
manner in which the US, and especially President Barack Obama, invested a lot
of time and political capital in pushing for India's membership. Pakistan has
noted with some alarm the US statement that it strongly supported India's role
in global institutions like the NSG and the UN Security Council, and that Washington
desired to "continue to work constructively" with NSG members to
admit India into the organisation.
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