This is a good move by the Pak policy makers. I hope the deal with US goes through.
Pakistan seeks West’s help for peaceful nuclear use
swissinfo
September 12, 2005 3:35 PM
Pakistan seeks West’s help for peaceful nuclear use
By Zeeshan Haider
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan called on the United States and other Western countries on Monday for help developing civilian nuclear technology that would meet its growing energy needs.
The call came while President Pervez Musharraf was in New York, where he will meet U.S. President George W. Bush later this week on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Muhammad Naeem Khan declined to say whether Musharraf, an ally in Washington’s war on terrorism, would take up the issue with the U.S. president.
“We would like the developed countries. especially the Western countries and the United States to extend cooperation to Pakistan for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy,” Khan told his weekly news briefing.
Bush, in a dramatic policy shift, in July promised Pakistan’s rival, India, full cooperation in developing its civilian nuclear power programme. The offer was seen as a recognition of India as a rising power and potential counterweight to China.
Washington’s ties with Islamabad have vastly improved since Pakistan joined the U.S.-led war on terrorism after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
But Washington is much more wary of Islamabad’s nuclear activities than those of its neighbour – especially after Abdul Qadeer Khan, a scientist once revered as the father of the country’s atomic bomb, was found running an international black market.
Khan admitted in a stunning televised address last year that he sold nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Khan said Pakistan’s civilian nuclear facilities were running under International Atomic Energy safeguards and it was ready to accept such measures if further sites were to be built.
He said the country planned to produce 8,800 megawatts of electricity through nuclear energy by 2030.
The country is currently generating 2.4 percent of nearly 20,000 megawatts through nuclear technology.
Pakistan built its first nuclear power station in 1972 with Canadian help, but Western countries – under pressure from the United States – later halted nuclear cooperation amid suspicions that Pakistan was secretly developing nuclear weapons.
It set up a 300-megawatt nuclear power plant with the help of China in 1999 while construction work on another nuclear plant of the same capacity was started in April this year.
Pakistan carried out five nuclear tests in 1998, a tit-for-tat response to a seried of tests conducted by India.
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