Manmohan Singh, Barack Obama to finalise nuclear deal, Yousaf Raza Gilani to watch and crib.
Pakistan has not given up on a civilian nuclear deal demand despite the US making it quite clear that such an agreement won’t be possible.
Local newspapers quoted prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani saying that good friend China would back Pakistan’s demand for a civilian nuclear agreement. But how Beijing can make a case for Islamabad with the US is difficult to fathom.
Equally confusing are reports that say China is willing to grant Pakistan a deal like the one signed between and India and US on civil nuclear cooperation.
Neither China nor Pakistan were happy with the India-US nuclear deal. The deal brought India out of decades of international isolation. China felt India did not deserve any special status. Pakistan fretted saying if India could go ahead and have nuclear trade, why not its neighbour?
Gilani said Pakistan was aware of its responsibilities as a nuclear state. He said Pakistan had taken effective steps for nuclear safety, security and non-proliferation through “extensive legislative and regulatory framework”.
Gilani made it clear that at the nuclear security summit in Washington on April 12-13, he would talk about Pakistan’s need for clean energy.
Since the Obama administration needs Pakistan’s military help in ensuring stability in Afghanistan, Islamabad believes this is the right time to come up with all its demands. At the recently concluded strategic dialogue in Washington between US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pakistan took a huge wish-list, including demand for nuclear power plants to meet energy needs.
President Barack Obama will be meeting both prime minister Manmohan Singh and Gilani separately.
In fact, Singh’s travel plans have been advanced by a day.
To reach on time for bilateral talks with Obama, he will not stop over in Frankfurt as originally planned.
Singh and Obama are likely to discuss the last stages of the complicated nuclear agreement which is yet to be worked out.
The reprocessing agreement has to go through the US Congress and the nuclear liability bill has to be approved by Indian lawmakers. Both are difficult propositions as the opposition in India is in no mood to oblige the government.
The last stage in the process may not be an easy one as it seemed earlier. Without the liability legislation, US companies that are eyeing the lucrative Indian nuclear market may find it difficult to do business here.
Singh is also likely to discuss Afghanistan with Obama. As Pakistan flexes its muscles in Afghanistan and hopes to play peace-broker in Kabul, India appears to be on the retreat.
Singh is likely to make the point that the attacks against Indian assets in Afghanistan is being fuelled by the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Haqqani network known to be close to Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI.
There are enough indications from the US that the Obama administration is keen to ensure that India and Pakistan begin to seriously re-engage for stability in the region.
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