ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Foreign Office has said that Pakistan seeks cooperation of the international community including the United States on civil nuclear energy.
In his weekly media briefing in Islamabad on Thursday, the Foreign Office Spokesman Qazi Khalilullah said that there should be non-discriminatory approach on nuclear issues including access to peaceful use of nuclear energy.
The spokesman said that Pakistan is producing nuclear energy to meet its energy demands.
On Wednesday, The Washington Post published a report which claimed that the US and Pakistan are in the process of negotiating an accord which may end up in a civil nuclear deal between the two countries.
The Washington Post said that the United States is exploring an option that could pave the way for a civil nuclear deal with Pakistan like the one concluded with India in 2005.
The report said that that the proposed deal could place new limits and controls on Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal in return for “a version of the civil nuclear deal”.
The newspaper suggested that Pakistan would agree to restrict its nuclear program to weapons and delivery systems that are appropriate to its actual defence needs against India’s nuclear threat.
“Pakistan might agree not to deploy missiles capable of reaching beyond a certain range, for example,” it said.
In July 2005, the US signed a civil nuclear agreement with India under which New Delhi agreed to separate its civil and military nuclear facilities and to place all its civil nuclear facilities under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards, while in exchange Washington agreed to work toward full civil nuclear cooperation with India.
It is pertinent to mention that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will visit Washington on October 22, 2015 at the invitation of the US President Barack Obama.
