June 17, 2010
Dear NSG Ambassador:
In recent weeks, credible reports have surfaced that the Government of China is planning to sell two additional power reactors to Pakistan. We strongly urge that your government raise this issue at the upcoming meetings of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in Christchurch, New Zealand and make clear that such a transfer would violate NSG guidelines.
Under the guidelines of the NSG, countries other than the five NPT-recognized nuclear-weapon states—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—are not eligible to receive most nuclear exports from NSG members unless they have IAEA full-scope safeguards in place.
When China joined the NSG in 20004, it had already built a power reactor at Pakistan’s Chashma site. It claimed at the time that it was entitled to build a second one on the grounds that the second reactor project was covered in its existing agreement with Pakistan.
There was no declaration at that time of any intention to build additional nuclear power plants at Chashma. Chinese construction of additional nuclear power plants in Pakistan beyond what was grandfathered in 2004 would be inconsistent with NSG guidelines and China’s commitments to the NSG.
We urge your government to reiterate to the Chinese government that it must not engage in nuclear trade with Pakistan in a way that violates nonproliferation obligations and norms.
The provision of uranium and/or nuclear fuel to Pakistan or India for safeguarded reactors can have the effect of increasing their respective capacity to produce enriched uranium or plutonium for weapons purposes in unsafeguarded facilities. Action 35 of the 2010 NPT Review Conference Final Document:
“… urges all States parties to ensure that their nuclear-related exports do not directly or indirectly assist the development of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devises and that such exports are in full conformity with the objectives and purposes of the Treaty as stipulated, particularly, in articles I, II, and III of the Treaty, as well as the decisions and principles and objectives … adopted in 1995 by the Review and Extension Conference.” The 1995 NPT decisions include making full-scope safeguards a condition of nuclear supply.
All UN members states are also obligated to support UN Security Council Resolution 1172 of June 1998, which calls on Pakistan and India to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), stop producing fissile material for weapons, and undertake other nuclear risk reduction measures.
Neither Pakistan nor India has full-scope safeguards in place; neither has halted fissile material production for weapons or signed the CTBT; both nations are currently expanding their respective uranium enrichment capacity.
We urge your government to oppose nuclear trade by any state with Pakistan (or any other state that does not meet basic nonproliferation norms) and to refrain from engaging in nuclear trade with India until such time as it complies with UNSC Resolution 1172.
Sincerely,
Daryl G. Kimball, Executive Director,
Arms Control Association (Washington, DC, U.S.A.)
Hideyuki Ban, Co-Director,
Citizens' Nuclear Information Center (Tokyo, Japan)
Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor (retired),
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Mass. U.S.A.)
David Culp, Legislative Representative,
Friends Committee on National Legislation (Quakers) (Washington, D.C. USA)
Dr. Kate Dewes & Commander Robert Green, Royal Navy (Ret'd)
Co-Directors, Disarmament & Security Centre (Christchurch, New Zealand)
Amb. Jayantha Dhanapala,
former UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs
Dr David Hutchinson Edgar, Chairperson,
and Mary McCarrick Treasurer, Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Anna Ek. President.
Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society
George Farebrother, Secretary,
World Court Project (United Kingdom)
Trevor Findlay, Director,
Canadian Centre for Treaty Compliance, Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada)
Yasunari Fujimoto, Secretary General,
Japan Congress Against A- and H-Bombs (Gensuikin)
Irene Gale AM, Treasurer
Australian Peace Committee (Adelaide , Australia)
Pete Haemmerle, Executive Director,
Austrian Fellowship of Reconciliation
Frank von Hippel,
Professor of Public and International Affairs, Program on Science and Global Security,
Princeton University (Princeton, NJ, USA)
Akira Kawasaki, Executive Committee Member,
Peace Boat (Japan)
Hans Lammerant,
Vredesactie (Belgium)
Fred McGoldrick, Consultant, and
Former Director of Nonproliferation and Export Policy,
U.S. Department of State (Boston, Mass., U.S.A.)
Ak Malten, Director,
Pro Peaceful Energy Use (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Michael Mariotte, Executive Director,
Nuclear Information and Resource Service (Takoma Park, MD, U.S.A.)
Haruko Moritaki, Co-Director,
Hiroshima Alliance for Nuclear Weapons Abolition
Masayoshi Naito, Coordinator,
Citizens Network for Nuclear Weapons Abolition (Japan)
Kimiko Ogasawara, Vice Chair,
Peace/Nuclear Issues Committee,
National Christian Council in Japan
Nicola Cufaro Petroni,
General Secretary, Union of Scientists for Disarmament, and
Professor, Interdepartmental Centre for Peace Research of Bari University, Italy
Dr. Willam C. Potter,
Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar Professor of Nonproliferation Studies,
Monterey Institute of International Studies (California, U.S.A.)
Associate Professor Tilman Ruff, Chair,
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons (ICAN)
Barney Richards, President,
Peace Council Aotearoa New Zealand Inc.
Daisuke Sato, Secretary-General,
No Nukes Asia Forum Japan
Sukla Sen,
Committee for Communal Amity (Mumbai, India)
Alice Slater, UN Representative,
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (New York, NY, U.S.A.)
Aileen Mioko Smith, Executive Director,
Green Action (Kyoto, Japan)
Susi Snyder Programme Leader, Nuclear Disarmament,
IKV Pax Christi (The Netherlands)
Henry Sokolski, Executive Director,
Nonproliferation Policy Education Center,
Fmr. Deputy for Nonproliferation Policy in the Department of Defense (Washington, D.C., U.S.A.)
Sharon Squassoni,
Director and Senior Fellow, Proliferation Prevention Program,
Center for Strategic and International Studies (Washington, D.C. U.S.A.)
Steven Staples, President,
Rideau Institute (Ottawa, Canada)
Terumi Tanaka, Secretary General,
Nihon Hidankyo (Japan Confederation of A- and H-bomb Sufferers)
Takao Takahara,
International Peace Research Institute, Meiji Gakuin University* (Japan)
Masao Tomonaga, Chair,
Nagasaki Citizens' Assembly for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
Hiromichi Umebayashi, Chair,
Policy Council of Japan to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Rene Wadlow, Representative to the UN,
Association of World Citizens (Geneva, Switzerland)
Dr. Leonard Weiss,
Center for International Security and Cooperation,
Stanford University* (Stanford, California, U.S.A.)
Gunnar Westberg,
Member of the Board of Directors,
International Physicians for the Prevention f Nuclear War
Peter Wilk, Executive Director,
Physicians for Social Responsibility (U.S.A.)
Ichiro Yuasa, President,
Peace Depot* (Japan)
*Affiliation listed for identification purposes only.