Pakistan raises alarm over Canada-India nuclear deal
Islamabad: Pakistan has expressed concern over the recently concluded long-term uranium supply agreement between Canada and India and the reported cooperation between the two countries in nuclear reactor technologies.
According to Kashmir Media Service, responding to media queries, Foreign Office Spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said Pakistan is closely monitoring the development, particularly the potential collaboration between Ottawa and New Delhi on small modular reactors and advanced nuclear technologies. He said such arrangements have implications for strategic stability in South Asia and warrant careful consideration.
“This arrangement represents yet another country-specific exception in the field of civil nuclear cooperation. It is particularly ironic given that India’s 1974 nuclear test, conducted using plutonium produced in a reactor supplied by Canada for peaceful purposes, had led directly to the establishment of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). A state whose actions necessitated the establishment of global export controls is now being granted preferential access under selective arrangements.”
“India has neither placed all its civilian nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards nor undertaken any binding commitment to do so under this arrangement. Several facilities remain outside international inspection. It is also unclear what concrete non-proliferation assurances, if any, accompany this agreement,” the spokesman said.
The strategic consequences, he added, are equally troubling. Assured external uranium supplies effectively release India’s domestic reserves for military use, enabling the expansion of its fissile material stockpiles, accelerating the growth of its nuclear arsenal, and deepening existing asymmetries in South Asia’s strategic balance. In this context, the arrangement also undermines Canada’s commitment to the international non-proliferation regime and its corresponding obligations under that framework.
“Pakistan reiterates that civil nuclear cooperation must be governed by a non-discriminatory, criteria-based approach applicable equally to states that are not parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Selective exceptions diminish the credibility of the global non-proliferation framework and risk further destabilizing regional and global peace & security,” the statement concluded.
