Pakistan in Media

Editorial, The News International, Pakistan
Sunday, May 17, 2009

Our president ended his marathon round of overseas visits with a meeting with President Sarkozy of France. France and Pakistan have enjoyed good relations for many years. The French wave no big sticks in our direction and tread a very independent line diplomatically – occasionally to the discomfort of their European allies and America. The meeting between the two leaders seemed productive – with the principal product being a 'civilian nuclear deal'. Or is it? There is some confusion about the precise nature of the 'deal' with our own diplomats saying that Mr Sarkozy has undertaken to supply Pakistan with "civilian nuclear technology" – which is not what the French diplomats in the Elysee Palace are saying. Their understanding is that the French have agreed to cooperate with Pakistan only in the field of 'nuclear safety' – which could mean any one of several things. Our usually sure-footed foreign minister speaking after the meeting talked of a 'significant development' and went on to say something that bears very close scrutiny indeed – "France has agreed to transfer civilian nuclear technology to Pakistan." The transfer of nuclear technology from country to country be it civilian or military is very tightly regulated; and we are eyed with considerable suspicion over nuclear matters by the wider world. The brakes were further applied when the French spokesperson said…"France was ready, within the framework of its international agreements, to co-operate with Pakistan in the field of nuclear safety. This is so the Pakistani programme can develop in the best conditions of safety and security." Which is some distance from transferring civilian nuclear technology.

The fact of the matter is that France cannot unilaterally transfer nuclear technology to Pakistan because we are not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and are therefore subject to a boycott of technology transfer by other powers. France is not going to breach an international treaty merely to give Pakistan a helping-hand – no matter how supportive of us they are. India was, until last year, in a similar position – but negotiated its way out of it to do a deal with the Americans. Pakistan would very much like to do the same, and doing a deal with France along the lines of that negotiated with India is an attractive prospect – if highly controversial for France. We need more power and we need it fast. Nuclear power stations take years to build and are hugely expensive and are not a fast solution, and there are other power-generating sources that we could develop before we went down the nuclear road – coal for instance, of which we have an under-exploited plenitude. Nobody in the world is going to get edgy about us developing coal-fired power generators unlike nuclear – which set alarm bells ringing all over the place. France may well help us to develop our nuclear resources and we welcome that – but the transfer of new nuclear technologies is a distant dream and our foreign minister needs to be a little more careful with his public utterances on the matter.