US consults China over Sino-Pak N-deal

China and the United States on Tuesday held crucial 'consultations on South Asian region' ahead of their bilateral strategic dialogue in Beijing later this month as Beijing plans to deepen nuclear cooperation with Pakistan by building two new atomic reactors for its 'all weather' ally.

Robert Blake, the United States Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, is currently visiting China for 'consultations on South Asian region,' said Jiang Yu, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, declining to go into details of the 'consultations' on the Indian sub-continent.

Blake's talks with the Chinese leaders was part of the preparatory meetings for a crucial bilateral strategic dialogue to be held in Beijing on May 23 to be attended by the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

China's commitment to build two nuclear power plants for Pakistan was announced by China National Nuclear Corporation. In a brief statement on its website recently, CNNC said it had reached an agreement 'with the aim of developing an overseas nuclear power electricity market.'

Last week, Jiang tacitly acknowledged China's commitment to build two 650 MW nuclear power plants for Pakistan, saying that the two countries have been cooperating in the field of nuclear energy.

"This cooperation respects international obligations, for peaceful purposes and accepts International Atomic Energy Agency's regulations and supervision," she had said.

The Sino-US strategic dialogue was expected to cover all aspects of South Asian region, including the India-Pakistan relations.

China has already built two reactors with capacity of about 350 MW at Chashma in Pakistan's Punjab province.

Under the new agreement, Chinese companies will build at least two new 650 MW reactors at Chashma. The revelations of China's decision to go ahead with the two reactors comes weeks after the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington attended by Chinese President Hu Jintao.

A Pakistani official was quoted by the Financial Times as welcoming the deal, saying: "Our Chinese brothers have once again lived up to our expectations. They have agreed to continue cooperating with us in the nuclear energy field."

While the deal was seen here as confirmation by China to continue with its policy to regard Pakistan as a "all weather" strategic partner, there is still no information on how Beijing plans to build the reactors without the approval of the the IAEA and Nuclear Suppliers Group, the multinational body seeking to control trade in atomic materials.

China apparently has not informed the NSG about its commitment to build these reactors for Pakistan while joining it in 2004, which observers here say was an important requirement.

These mandatory requirements had prompted India to go for the India-US civil nuclear deal, which was subsequently endorsed by the NSG. It facilitated longstanding allies like Russia and France to have firm tie ups to further their cooperation with India on the civil nuclear energy.

Blake's talks with Chinese leaders and the forthcoming China-US strategic dialogue later this month was expected to throw light on how Beijing plans to go about it and Washington's reaction to it.

Mark Hibbs, a senior associate at the US think tank the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Nuclear Policy Programme has said China had decided to go ahead with the deal because 'for political reasons it felt Pakistan should be compensated in some way for the US-India nuclear deal.'

"After the dust settled on the US-India nuclear deal, China gravitated towards a position that it will support nuclear commerce if it benefits Chinese industry," he said in a recent analysis posted on the Carnegie website.

He underlined the Obama administration may not oppose China's new nuclear deal with Pakistan because it wanted to keep Pakistan engaged in Afghanistan and gain Beijing's support over Iran's nuclear programme.

He also said the US would find it difficult to oppose China's support for Pakistan after signing the US-India civil nuclear agreement.