India protests China plan to sell two more n-reactors to Pakistan

In a deal that has the Indian security establishment crying foul, China is set to sell two more nuclear reactors to Pakistan, according to a report that said India has registered its objection to the move to China as well as to the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

The report in The Indian Express says the deal is for two reactors for a project to be located off Karachi and valued at $ 9.6 billion.

After raising the issue in high-level official meetings and then at the political level too, India has pointed out “the incongruity of this prospective sale with China’s own international comitments as a NPT member as well as within the NSG”, the report said

China and Pakistan have a nuclear cooperation agreement, signed before China’s accession to the NUclear Suppliers Group. NSG guidelines mandate that n-fuel and technology be sold only to countries whose nuclear programme is entirely under the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency, with the exception of the five n-weapon countries and India, which was granted an exception under the 2008 nuclear deal.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to visit China later in October, though little is expected to change on this front.