Pakistan Rejects Atom Bomb Material Cut - Off Talks

By REUTERS
Published: January 25, 2010
Filed at 1:08 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/01/25/world/international-uk-arms-nu...

GENEVA (Reuters) - Pakistan, citing a "clear and present danger"
from its nuclear-armed rival India, ruled out on Monday global
negotiations to ban the future production of material to make atomic
bombs.

Confirming a Reuters report from January 22, Pakistan's ambassador
to the United Nations in Geneva, Zamir Akram, said such a treaty
would leave Pakistan -- the most recent member of the nuclear club
-- at a permanent disadvantage.

Pakistan's stance, triggered by nuclear and arms deals between India
and the United States as well as with other nuclear powers, is a
blow to the Obama administration's efforts to revive global
disarmament.

It also raises a stumbling block to the U.N.-sponsored Conference on
Disarmament, where members had proposed starting work on talks to
halt production of the highly enriched uranium and plutonium used to
make nuclear weapons in what would be known as a fissile material
cut-off treaty (FMCT).

"A fissile material cut-off treaty that only bans future production
of fissile material is unacceptable to Pakistan," Akram told
reporters. "It would only accentuate the disparity and imbalance
that exists and that simply is not acceptable."

DISAPPOINTED OPTIMISM

Akram said Pakistan was willing to negotiate a fissile treaty that
encompassed reductions of existing stocks of material.

It also was ready to discuss other areas proposed at the 65-member
conference: nuclear disarmament, limiting the militarisation of
outer space, and "negative security assurances" -- promises by
nuclear powers not to use atomic weapons on non-nuclear states.

The conference broke a 12-year deadlock last May when all members,
including Pakistan, agreed on a programme of work, including talks
on a fissile treaty.

But Pakistan subsequently refused to allow the talks to start.
Akram said Islamabad's initial optimism about the Obama
administration's disarmament intentions, which had led it to back
the conference programme, had quickly evaporated.

Other countries were selling India weapons, he said, and under the
terms of a civilian nuclear agreement Washington signed with India
in 2005, India was negotiating deals with the U.S. and elsewhere to
acquire nuclear technology and material.

Akram neither disputed nor confirmed estimates that India already
has twice as many nuclear weapons as Pakistan.

A civilian deal signed with France would provide India with fissile
material for its reactors for 60 years, allowing it to use its own
stocks for weapons, he said.

India's nuclear and other arms plans were complicating the
environment for disarmament talks, he said, saying it was unclear
why the United States was helping India build up its nuclear
potential.

"But for us it presents us with a clear and present danger arising
out of the asymmetry in strategic capabilities in South Asia," he
said.

Pakistan would not block the conference but needed more than vague
promises that the talks could also cover fissile stocks.

"I want to be clear before we start negotiations what are we talking
about," he said.

But Akram said he did not believe states with nuclear weapons would
agree to include stocks in the negotiations.

And he condemned nuclear powers for signing civilian deals with
India that undermine the nuclear non-proliferation regime.

"Their motivation is greed.. They want to make money. But for us
it's life and death," he said.

(Editing by Michael Roddy)