China’s move to build nuclear power plants in Pakistan is not consistent with the rules of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and the U.S. has raised this issue in its bilateral meetings, a top Obama Administration official has said.
“When China became a member of the NSG, there was a consensus from other members to grandfather construction of plants in Pakistan which China had initiated. However, there was not agreement that that was an open-ended clause,” Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Non-Proliferation Thomas Countryman said.
“The problem is that China has since announced other power plants that it intends to build in Pakistan, and this is not consistent with the rules of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which it joined. We raised this issue both as a bilateral issue and within the context of the Nuclear Suppliers Group,” he said in response to a question from Senator Bob Corker who noted that they [China] are not honouring the NSG guidelines.
“What measures have been built into the agreement to prevent China from exploiting nuclear technology to countries that are proliferation rich?" Senator Robert Menendez asked.
