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China firms join Pakistan nuclear push
INTERNATIONAL MISGIVINGS: China said the project was for peaceful purposes
and would respect international guidelines, but the deal may be scrutinized by
the NSG
REUTERS , BEIJING
Friday, Jun 25, 2010, Page 5
ˇ§China has long been cooperating with Pakistan for the use of nuclear
technology for peaceful purposes and this cooperation is continuing.ˇ¨ˇX Pakistani
governmental official
Chinese companies this month quietly signed a contract to cooperate in building
two nuclear reactors at Pakistanˇ¦s Chashma atomic complex, advancing a
controversial project that has worried Washington and India.
The China Nuclear Industry Fifth Construction Company and the CNNC China
Zhongyuan Engineering Corp, which specializes in foreign nuclear projects,
agreed to work together on the third and fourth plants at the Chashma complex,
according to a Chinese-language announcement on the Web site of the
construction company (www.cnfc.net.cn).
The deal, signed in Shanghai on June 8, confirmed that long-running plans about
Chinese help in expanding Chashma are moving forward, despite misgivings in the
region and beyond about security and proliferation risks in troubled Pakistan.
A Pakistani government official said there was nothing new in the agreement and
that it was part of an ongoing cooperation with China in the peaceful use of
nuclear energy.
COOPERATION
ˇ§China has long been cooperating with Pakistan for the use of nuclear technology
for peaceful purposes and this cooperation is continuing,ˇ¨ the official said.
The pressurized water reactors are ˇ§a major cooperative project between China
and Pakistan that both governments treat as highly important,ˇ¨ said the company
announcement dated the same day as the signing, which received almost no
domestic media attention at the time.
The project will ˇ§bring Chinese nuclear energy to the world and is significant
for once again bearing firm fruit for Sino-Pakistani friendship,ˇ¨ the company
statement said.
It did not give any details about the timing and cost of the project. The
companies have worked on earlier reactors at Chashma.
Mounting signs that China will proceed with the reactor project in Punjab
province have stirred international misgivings, especially in neighboring India
and the US. The US said this month it wanted clarification from China on the
proposed plants, which have been under planning and deepening negotiation for
years.
WEAPONS
Pakistan and India are wary rivals, and both possess nuclear weapons and stay
outside the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Islamabad has looked to Beijing to counter to Indian influence.
Pakistan also faces severe power shortages. China says its nuclear cooperation
with Pakistan is purely peaceful and follows international safeguards.
The proposed nuclear deal may be discussed this week by the Nuclear Suppliers
Group (NSG), a body of 46 governments that seek to control access to their
nuclear fuel and reactor technology to prevent the spread of atomic weapons.
China and the US are among the NSG members, who will meet in New Zealand.
MISGIVINGS
In 2008, China allowed a nuclear energy agreement between Washington and Delhi
to win NSG approval, despite misgivings in Beijing, long a rival of India, and
criticism from other capitals that the deal eroded nuclear non-proliferation
rules.
China has said that the two proposed reactors ˇ§form part of an earlier agreement
with Pakistan that predated its NSG membership, thereby denying that the sale
would violate NSG guidelines,ˇ¨ said Lora Saalman, an associate in Beijing with
the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who studies nuclear diplomacy
between emerging Asian powers China and India.
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