Author:
Publication: Dawn, Karachi
Date: February 20, 2001
Pakistani diplomats here hope that
the Bush administration will seriously pursue the issue of nuclear fuel
supplies to India by the Russian Federation that was underlined by the
State Department last week.
In a statement on Friday, the State
Department had expressed concern over the shipment of the fuel for India's
Tarapur plant despite the fact that Moscow was a party to an agreement
not to export such material to other countries.
The statement said the shipment,
together with Russia's sensitive nuclear assistance to Iran, "raises serious
questions about Russia's support for the goal of preventing nuclear proliferation".
Pakistan ambassador Maleeha Lodhi,
asked to comment on the State Department statement, said on Monday it contained
what Pakistan considered to be "very important elements" and "appropriately
calls for cancellation of the supply arrangement".
The ambassador said Pakistan had
long sought to alert and sensitize the international community about the
foreign, primarily Russian, assistance to the development of India's conventional
and nuclear capabilities and unrestrained build-up. The US statement "reaffirms
that reality".
She hoped the issue would be pursued
with the seriousness that it deserved as supplies of such sensitive materials
and technologies could only serve to destabilize the security environment
in South Asia and fuel India's expansive nuclear weapons programme, "which
poses a threat to regional stability".
