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Links with Pak cloud China`s membership in world nuclear group
Washington, May 19: The US government has pressed its case in Congress for China`s membership in a multilateral nuclear group but lawmakers cautioned Beijing`s moves to equip Pakistan may pose a proliferation threat.
Washington, May 19: The US government has pressed its case in Congress for China's membership in a multilateral nuclear group but lawmakers cautioned Beijing's moves to equip Pakistan may pose a proliferation threat.
Washington is backing China's long-standing application for membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group
(NSG), the cooperative association of countries aimed at controlling the export of nuclear materials, equipment and technology.
China's membership may be approved later this month by the NSC, whose 40 members now include the United States, Russia, France, Germany, Russia and Britain, officials said. John Wolf, the assistant secretary in the US state department's bureau of nonproliferation, told a Congressional hearing yesterday that China should be included in the NSG, where major nuclear export control issues were discussed.
"China as a nuclear supplier should face those issues head-on. That is one of the global responsibilities it should take on," Wolf told the international relations panel of the house of representatives. But some groups believe china could follow in the footsteps of Russia, which had posed difficulties in the NSG in the past, probably driven in part by Moscow's interest in protecting its nuclear supply relationship with India.
Wolf dismissed such a possibility, saying that China had stated that it would inform the NSG of particulars about its supply of a second nuclear reactor to Pakistan, for which an agreement was signed just earlier this month.
Bureau Report
China's membership may be approved later this month by the NSC, whose 40 members now include the United States, Russia, France, Germany, Russia and Britain, officials said. John Wolf, the assistant secretary in the US state department's bureau of nonproliferation, told a Congressional hearing yesterday that China should be included in the NSG, where major nuclear export control issues were discussed.
"China as a nuclear supplier should face those issues head-on. That is one of the global responsibilities it should take on," Wolf told the international relations panel of the house of representatives. But some groups believe china could follow in the footsteps of Russia, which had posed difficulties in the NSG in the past, probably driven in part by Moscow's interest in protecting its nuclear supply relationship with India.
Wolf dismissed such a possibility, saying that China had stated that it would inform the NSG of particulars about its supply of a second nuclear reactor to Pakistan, for which an agreement was signed just earlier this month.
Bureau Report