The Indian Prime Minister Mr Manmohan Singh is off to Toronto not only to attend the G20 Summit on The Global Financial Crisis, but to hold talks with his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper and sign a bilateral Civil Nuclear Cooperation Deal. It is indeed ironic that Canada, like US, Russia and France before it, has chosen to callously ignore the implications of such a move on peace in South Asia. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs has termed the agreement as covering a large ambit of peaceful nuclear applications. This statement may throw dust in the eyes of western governments, but the teeming millions in the South Asian Powder Keg know that India in its headlong pursuit towards a global power status needs a potent nuclear arsenal as an instrument of coercion and that it is stockpiling these weapons of mass destruction. It is also a known fact that the only effective obstacle in this quest is Pakistan and its nuclear capability that is aimed at maintaining a balance in the region and deterring a hegemonic and jingoistic adversary from committing yet another act of aggression against its smaller neighbour. There is no doubting the fact that the Canadian government must have analysed the pros and cons of what they are about to do as a sovereign decision, but as a directly effected party there are questions in the mind of every Pakistani, including the ones living in Canada, that need to be answered. Who carried out the final analysis and who briefed the decision makers in the Canadian Capital - were these inputs the work of Indian origin Canadians working for the government or parties tilted to the Indian cause? Was Pakistans point of view obtained through independent sources and if so, was it even considered? Were Pakistans options in case of the above-mentioned deal visualised and what effects such options would have on the regional and global security situation considered? With global opinion increasingly turning against stockpiling and proliferation of nuclear weapons, will the Canadian decision to facilitate Indian nuclear designs curry favour internationally? Pakistan staked a lot when it decided to join the coalition in the global war against terror and suffered losses as a consequence. It is in this backdrop that the Indo-Canadian Agreement is being viewed not as a deal, but a double deal. This view is justified as Canada is an ally within the International Coalition against Terror yet it has chosen to indirectly help an entity that is hell-bent on creation of conditions detrimental to the security of Pakistan. All things said and done, there is only one course of action for Pakistan under the current circumstances and our security policy makers appear to have astutely recognised it. Pakistan must now turn to its long trusted friend - the Peoples Republic of China to right the imbalance created by the Indo-Canadian Deal. The recent visit of the Pakistani Chief of Army Staff at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart and the resolve to further strengthen defence ties between the two countries is a step in that direction. In China, we have an ally that has stood by us in the hour of need and relations between the two neighbours, while based upon converging interests have a much deeper foundation that rests on a genuine, deep-rooted people to people affection. Pakistan must also realise that a movement towards a Sino-Pak Nuclear Cooperation Accord will subject Pakistan to intense diplomatic pressure and even a strategy of indirect coercion from economic angle. All such attempts must be anticipated and withstood at all costs and security linkages, including the inking of a Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, with the Peoples Republic of China must be pushed ahead with the utmost speed. The writer is a freelance columnist.