Pak expresses concern over uranium supply agreement between Canada and India

Islamabad, Mar 5 (PTI) Pakistan on Thursday expressed concern over the long-term uranium supply agreement between Canada and India, saying that it may lead to the expansion of Indian stockpiles.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was in India from February 27 to March 2, during which India and Canada sealed key pacts on supplies of Uranium and critical minerals and agreed to conclude a comprehensive economic partnership agreement soon.

“Pakistan has noted with concern the long-term uranium supply agreement concluded between Canada and India and potential cooperation on small modular reactors and advanced reactor technologies between the two sides,” Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said in a statement in response to media queries.

It said the agreement has "strategic consequences" which are troubling because “assured external uranium supplies effectively release India's domestic reserves for military use, enabling the expansion of its fissile material stockpiles, accelerating the growth of its nuclear arsenal, and deepening existing asymmetries in South Asia's strategic balance”.

It further said that the arrangement also undermines Canada’s commitment to the international non-proliferation regime and its corresponding obligations under that framework. “This arrangement represents yet another country-specific exception in the field of civil nuclear cooperation,” it said.

It said Pakistan reiterates that civil nuclear cooperation must be governed by a non-discriminatory, criteria-based approach applicable equally to states that are not parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). PTI SH  ZH ZH