The United States has refused Pakistan’s demand that it should be offered the same kind of nuclear cooperation deal that has been signed with India, according to two nuclear experts. Zia Mian of Princeton University and MV Ramana, a Banglore-based scientist, writing in the current issue of Arms Control Today, a publication of the Arms Control Association, contend that “despite the many claims that the social, economic and political well-being of the people of India will be enhanced by this deal (the July 2005 agreement signed by Bush and Singh in Washington), there has been little attention paid to the issue of whether India needs nuclear weapons at all, the costly failures of the Indian nuclear energy enterprise, and the possible harm for the people of India from a continued expansion of the nuclear complex.”
According to the authors, the US sees India as a “major prize and support for its military buildup and its nuclear complex seems to be the price the Bush administration is willing to pay. The goal, it seems, to be pursued regardless of how it will spur the spiral of distrust, political tension, and dangerous, costly, and wasteful military preparedness between the United States and China, between China and India and between India and Pakistan. This last dynamic is already coming into view, as Pakistan has demanded (and been refused) the same deal that is being offered to India, and China wants any exemptions for international nuclear cooperation and trade to be offered not only to India but to be open to others, ie its ally, Pakistan. In all these countries, containing about one in three people on the planet, many of whom are very poor, this will amount to a tragic distortion of values and priorities.” |