US urged to consider civilian nuclear deal with Pakistan

NEW YORK - An American expert has proposed that the US consider a conditions-based civilian nuclear deal with Pakistan as a way of bringing international recognition to the Pakistani nuclear weapons programme and bolstering cooperation in anti-terrorism and non-proliferation goals.
Nuclear cooperation could deliver results where billions of dollars of American aid have failed, Professor Christine Fair wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, saying US assistance to Pakistans civilian nuclear energy programme could achieve the goals that Kerry-Lugar legislation could not because Islamabads strong objections to some of its provisions.
The two countries have never been able to achieve a durable relationship based on mutual trust. That could be fixed, however, if the US were willing to consider a radical new approach: a policy centred on a conditions-based civilian nuclear deal, she said in an opinion piece 'Pakistan Needs Its Own Nuclear Deal.
In exchange for fundamental recognition of its nuclear status and civilian assistance, Pakistan would have to meet two criteria, wrote Ms Fair.
First, Pakistan would have to provide the kind of access and cooperation on nuclear suppliers networks identified in the Kerry-Lugar-Berman legislation.
Second, Pakistan would have to demonstrate sustained and verifiable commitment in combating all terrorist groups on its soil, including those groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba that Pakistan often calls freedom fighters acting on behalf of Kashmir and Indias Muslims.
Such a civilian nuclear deal could achieve the goals that Kerry-Lugar-Berman could not because it would offer Pakistan benefits that it actually values and which only the United States can meaningfully confer.
She added, More than conventional weapons or large sums of cash, a conditions-based civilian nuclear deal may be able to diminish Pakistani fears of US intentions while allowing Washington to leverage these gains for greater Pakistani cooperation on nuclear proliferation and terrorism.
This deal would confer acceptance to Islamabads nuclear weapon programme and reward it for the improvements in nuclear security that it has made since 2002, she said. Ms. Fair, who is currently assistant professor of South Asian political military affairs in the security studies programme at Georgetown University, pointed out that in the long shadow of A.Q. Khan, it is easy to forget that Pakistan has established a Strategic Plans Division that has done much to improve safety of the countrys nuclear assets.
Highlighting the importance of US-Pakistan relations in the context of regional and international challenges, she says with success in Afghanistan elusive, Washington needs Islamabad more than ever, and vice versa.
In the opinion piece, Ms. Fair also discusses the possibility of militants provoking a conflict between India and Pakistan and fears of proliferation.
The US is currently limited in its ability to shore up Pakistans confidence against India because Islamabad fears that Washington, perhaps working with India or Israel, seeks to dismantle Pakistans nuclear weapons programme.
Fundamentally, Pakistan believes the US rejects its status as a nuclear-armed state, whereas Washington has accepted and even supported the other two states that have acquired nuclear weapons outside of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, Israel and India.