Pak cannot be admitted to NSG, its nuclear programme unethical: report

New Delhi: Pakistan cannot be welcomed into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) because it uses front companies and other deceptive methods to obtain dual-use goods for its nuclear programme, a UK report has said.

According to Project Alpha, established in 2011 with British government funding, China is either complicit in supplying Pakistan’s nuclear programmes, or negligent in monitoring its state-owned companies.

This is so given the massive scale of Islamabad’s procurement of sensitive material from Beijing, the report says.

Pakistan also maintains a network of at least 20 trading companies in mainland China, Hong Kong, Dubai and Singapore that it uses to “covertly funnel dual-use goods to its strategic programmes”, the report alleged.

This in turn undermines Pakistan’s claim that it is a responsible nuclear power and thus deserves entry into the NSG.

“Pakistan cannot expect to be welcomed into the NSG when it continues to secretly and systematically undermine NSG members’ national export control systems by targeting companies through the use of front companies and other deceptive techniques,” the report says.

China is the most important supplier of all forms of goods to Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programmes, and most procurements from China are “probably from unwitting private suppliers”, the report by Project Alpha added.

The revelations of the report are significant given how China has repeatedly blocked India’s entry into the NSG, making Pakistan’s admission to the group a precondition for India to join it.