Pakistan calls for parity on civilian nuclear co-op

UNITED NATIONS—Pakistan has urged the international community to adopt a non- discriminatory and criteria-based approach in extending civil nuclear technology and cooperation to developing countries to enable them meet their growing energy needs.
Speaking in the General Assembly on the annual report of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Pakistan’s Acting Permanent Representative to the U.N., Farukh Amil, underscored the “crucial” role of nuclear energy for the socio-economic development needs of the developing countries.
Pakistan’s economy was growing remarkably fast and, as a country with a population of some 150 million people and limited fossil fuel resources, the government considered nuclear power generation an indispensable element of its national energy security strategy, he said. The Government had launched a 25-year energy security plan to respond to the high growth rate and rising demand for energy. “As we seek to operationalize our ‘Energy Security Plan’, we envisage the import of nuclear plants and other relevant civilian nuclear technology”.
Farukh Amil said Pakistan accorded the highest importance to the safety and security of its nuclear installations, particularly as it expanded its nuclear capacities. Among other things, it had strengthened security around its installations to avoid any possibility of sabotage, illicit acquisition or trafficking of nuclear material.
The Pakistan representative said he agreed with the IAEA’s assessment that the global need for energy was growing, in large part because of rising oil and natural gas prices. Pakistan also agreed with the
Agency’s identification of emerging and future trends, concerning, among others, environmental constraints on the use of fossil fuels, energy supply security and expansion plans for nuclear power. With that in mind, the role of nuclear energy would be crucial, particularly for developing countries.
Amil said that Pakistan had long been a strong promoter of efforts to harness nuclear technology for peace, progress and prosperity for all. Towards that goal, Pakistan had established several training centres, including a full-fledged university for nuclear science and engineering, to help meet both its needs for technical manpower, as well as technical training requirements of other countries.
Pakistan had also developed the entire range of nuclear fuel cycle facilities and now had two nuclear power plants in operation, with a third under construction, he said. Further, Pakistan had established four nuclear agricultural research centres which were being used to help farmers grow and harvest larger and better quality crops throughout the country. Pakistan also had 13 nuclear medicine and oncology centres providing diagnostic and treatment facilities to several hundred thousand patients each year.
The Pakistan representative stressed full compliance by all States with their respective safeguards obligations. But, he said, the Agency’s safeguards should not be used to serve partisan political objectives.
Finally, he acknowledged that the old consensus on disarmament and non-proliferation had broken down. He reiterated Pakistan’s proposal to convene a special conference to set out a new consensus, which responded to current and emerging realities. Such a new consensus should eliminate the discrimination and double standards that characterized the present non-proliferation arrangements.

—Agencies