Pakistan Rejects New Formula For NSG Membership, Calls It ‘Discriminatory’

Pakistan's Foreign Office has rejected a new formula for evaluation of the candidature of non-NPT states for the Nuclear Suppliers Groups (NSG) membership as "discriminatory" and "unhelpful".

Ambassador Rafael Mariano Grossi of Argentina had been appointed as a facilitator for discussions among the NSG members after Seoul plenary meeting of the 48-nation nuclear trade cartel ended in a stalemate over membership applications from India and Pakistan. The deadlock persisted at the extraordinary plenary held in Vienna last month.

Ambassador Grossi this month submitted a two-page revised document to the NSG member countries, containing a nine-point proposal on considering the applications of India and Pakistan, both of whom are non-NPT countries. The NSG members last week again met in Vienna for discussing the document called "revised version of a draft ‘Exchange of Notes' for Non-NPT applicants".

According to a US-based arms control organisation, the new draft proposal for accepting non-NPT members into the NSG paves the way for India's entry but leaves Pakistan out. Pakistan is known to have taken help from China in making its own nuclear weapons and supplying Libya, Iran and North Korea with sensitive equipment and technical know-how to help them build a bomb.

With inputs from IANS