PTI : Washington, Sat Mar 23 2013,10:26 hrs
China hassecretly entered into an agreement with Pakistan to construct a third nuclearreactor at Chashma in Punjab province that the Obama administration says willviolate Beijing's promises under an international anti-nuclear weapons accord,a media report said.
"Accordingto US intelligence and diplomatic officials, the secret agreement for theChashma 3 reactor was signed in Beijing during the visit by a delegation fromthe Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission from February 15 to 18," TheWashington Free Beacon reported.
The agreementcalls for the state-run China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) to constructa 1,000-megawatt power plant at Chashma, where two earlier Chinese reactorswere built, the American website said.
While there wasno confirmation of the news story from Pakistan or China, The Washington FreeBeacon quoted unnamed State Department official, who said that such a Chinesemove would be in violation of its international promise.
Under NSGguidelines China is not permitted to sell nuclear goods to any country that isnot part of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
按照NSG的章程中国是不允许给非国际原子能机构的国家出售有关核能方面的物资。
"NuclearSuppliers Group (NSG) participating governments have discussed the issue ofChina's expansion of nuclear cooperation with Pakistan at the last several NSGplenary sessions," a State Department official was quoted as saying.
"We remainconcerned that a transfer of new reactors at Chashma appears to extend beyondthe cooperation that was 'grandfathered' in when China was approved formembership in the NSG," the official told The Washington Free Beacon,which reported that the US is expected to protest the sale at an upcoming NSGmeeting in June.
According toHenry Sokolski, director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, Chinaappears to be keeping the nuclear deal secret to avoid internationalopposition.
Mark Hibbs,from the Carnegie Endowment's Nuclear Policy Programme, said that there isnothing in the NSG guidelines which prevents the Chashma 3 reactor sale.
"The rubis that the NSG guidelines are voluntary understandings of governments,"Hibbs told the Free Beacon.
“目前的问题是NSG的条例是靠政府自愿约定的”，希伯斯告诉自由灯塔。
"There isno enforcement mechanism. There is, however, a forum for dealing withinformation that suggests that a participating government is not upholding theguidelines," he said.
“并没有强制的约束。当某个参与国不认同章程条例时，NSG会召开会议进行讨论磋商。”
According toHibbs when China joined the NSG in 2004, it provided the NSG a list of nuclearitems which said it intended to provide to Pakistan under a longstandingbilateral agreement between the two countries.
