IT has been reported in the print and electronic media that India and Canada have signed a landmark nuclear deal in Toronto. Reports further say that Canada is the eighth nation to reach a civil nuclear deal with India since the Nuclear Suppliers Group, a cartel which trades in nuclear fuel equipment and technology, lifted a 34 year-old ban on India in 2008.
The Indo-Canada civil nuclear deal has been in the air for some time but quite expectedly there has been no strong reaction and criticism on the issue from the USA and other western countries.
There was no other country but the US which bluntly declined to enter into a civil nuclear technology deal with Islamabad like the one it had signed with New Delhi.
India had drawn the attention of all western countries including America ahead of the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington in March this year to what New Delhi described as “Pakistan’s poor track record regarding nuclear proliferation”.
The US, France, Britain and other countries, which somehow have so far not really recognised Pakistan as a nuclear power, have time and again been told and assured quite categorically by Islamabad that the country’s atomic assets are in safe hands. A fool proof command and control system is in place and is working effectively and that the nuclear technology smuggling network has also been broken some years back.
However, these assurances have not been able to allay the fears of the US and other countries. They prefer to look the other side when India enters into a civil nuclear technology with Canada.
These very countries have also raised objections to Pakistan’s civil nuclear technology deal with China recently.
Though New Delhi is equipping itself with arms and equipments from all sources, it cannot withstand it if Islamabad signs a civil nuclear deal with China for peaceful purposes of power generation.
