Pakistan said it will review its nuclear moratorium in the event India resumes testing and warned that an Indian-U.S. cooperation accord will boost its South Asian neighbor's atomic capabilities.
“We take seriously the assertion by the Indian leadership about the possibility of renewing nuclear tests,'' Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said in Islamabad yesterday, according to the official Associated Press of Pakistan. India's accord with the U.S. should be of concern to Pakistan and the international community, she said.
India's agreement doesn't prevent it from conducting nuclear tests or deny it the right to reprocess spent fuel, Anil Kakodkar, chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission, said Aug. 17 in Bangalore.
Pakistan and India declared a moratorium on testing after they detonated nuclear weapons in 1998. The countries began improving relations in 2003 after coming close to fighting a fourth war the previous year. This includes rebuilding diplomatic, transport and sporting ties and boosting cooperation on fighting terrorism and drug trafficking.
Pakistan doesn't want a nuclear arms race in the region, Aslam said. At the same time, it is committed to having a credible minimum deterrence in the interests of maintaining a strategic balance, she added.
Pakistan and India have tested missiles designed to carry nuclear warheads, some capable of reaching each other's cities.
Strategic Balance
“Any development that can impinge on the strategic balance in South Asia is a matter of vital concern for us,'' Aslam said. Australia's decision earlier this month to sell uranium to India also warrants close attention, she said.
India and the U.S. completed their accord last month to develop nuclear energy cooperation.
Maintaining a strategic balance in the region “would have been better served if the United States had considered a package approach for Pakistan and India,'' Pakistan's National Command Authority, a body that includes President Pervez Musharraf, said in a statement Aug. 3, APP reported at the time.
The civilian and military nuclear programs run by India and Pakistan remain outside the 1970 United Nations Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which they haven't signed.
The India-U.S. agreement stipulates that reprocessing of spent atomic fuel will take place under the safeguards of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency.
Indian Government
The issue of the safeguards plan with the IAEA is threatening India's 39-month-old coalition government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Four Communist parties in the alliance want the government to delay talks with the UN watchdog until domestic objections to the accord with the U.S. are addressed.
Support from the Communists is crucial for Singh's government to retain its parliamentary majority.
Pakistan intends to develop its civilian nuclear power, Aslam said yesterday, according to APP.
Pakistan's government estimates the energy needs of South Asia's second biggest economy after India will more than double to 177 million metric tons of oil equivalent by 2020. India's atomic power now accounts for about 3 percent of its total electricity production.
