Islamabad, 22nd December, 2016: Ahead of the upcoming informal meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to be held in Vienna this week, Senator Sehar Kamran (TI),President Centre for Pakistan and Gulf Studies (CPGS) has expressed her concern over the agenda of the meeting. She said the nine agenda points for the meetingare mainly focused on India’s entry into the NSG whereas Pakistan’s application has been deliberately neglected.
Senator Kamran said under the agenda point nine of the meeting, the NSG officials and members are prioritizing India’s inclusion into NSG, which is against the essence of the non-proliferation regimes. She said the world has already witnessed how the NSG waiver given to India in 2008 has disturbed the strategic stability of the South Asian region.
Senator Kamran opined that India’s full membership of the NSG will also give it an unfair advantage in conducting future diplomatic, political and strategic relationsvis-à-vis regional countries especially Pakistan. She said if the NSG member states assent to India’s bid for the membership they would be violatingthe international laws, norms and values hence placing the future stability of the world in jeopardy.
Senator Sehar Kamransaid the NSG member states should consider and equally weigh Pakistan’s application that is well-supported by a long history of appreciable track record andstrong credentials in the realm of nuclear non-proliferation regimes. Moreover, she emphasized that member countries should prefer a criteria based approach for the entry of non-NPT states. She expressed disappointment over India’s lack of response on Pakistan’s offer for placing moratorium on nuclear testing andalso questioned Indian credentials for non-proliferation, arms control and disarmament.She said NSG member states must priorities world peace at large, particularly regional security in South Asia, while negotiating on issues like these.