BEIJING — In a sign of growing friction between China and Taiwan, mainland diplomats said Saturday that they had suspended contact with their Taiwanese counterparts because the island’s new leader would not endorse the idea of a single Chinese nation. Beijing said it had cut off communication because President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan failed to endorse the idea that Taiwan and the mainland are part of one China, a concept known as the 1992 Consensus.…
Posts published in “Day: June 28, 2016”
The writer, Brigadier (retd) Feroz Hassan Khan is a professor of security studies at Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California Michael Krepon – a prominent thinker on South Asia’s strategic issues and co-founder of the Stimson Center, a prestigious think tank in Washington DC – spearheaded research on the technological transition from the first to the second nuclear age in an edited volume, The Lure and Pitfalls of MIRVs. The Stimson Center study examines the…
The writer is an M Phil in Strategic Studies from National Defence University, Islamabad The Nuclear Suppliers Group, or NSG, as it is known more commonly, is in a bind in deciding how to deal with membership applications of India and Pakistan. Ironically, the NSG was created in 1975 because India illegally diverted nuclear technology provided for peaceful use and made a bomb that it tested in 1974. Like Israel and Pakistan, New Delhi never…
. The writer is a former Pakistan ambassador to the UN. GIVEN the growing conventional arms imbalance with India, Pakistan’s security is now critically dependent on nuclear deterrence. In the long, difficult struggle to develop this capability, in the face of determined Western opposition, Pakistan’s scientists, almost all its political leaders, and several of its soldiers, played vital roles. No less important was the part played by Pakistan’s diplomats. It was the foresight of diplomats…
The writer is a political analyst and a former academic. The Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG) comprising 48 member countries was set up as a response to India’s 1974 test explosion. The test demonstrated that peaceful nuclear technology transferred for peaceful purposes could be used to make bombs. India had acquired the technology from Canada and heavy water from the US. The idea behind the formation of the NSG was to regulate the global trade of…
The meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group on Friday came to a deadlock on the matter of India’s admission to the exclusive club. The US support of India’s bid fell on deaf ears and Modi’s international tour over the last month bore no fruit either. China first took the position that India’s bid to become a part of the group was not on the agenda. When the issue was raised, the opposition to India’s bid…
India has failed in its attempt to gain entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) with the existing membership falling back on what has been called the ‘bedrock’ of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The annual meeting of the NSG in Seoul has concluded its plenary with no agreement on any of the countries that are seeking membership but have not signed the NPT — which includes both India and Pakistan. This effectively kicks into…
The crescendo of noise around India’s bid for entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) has come to an abrupt stop.The meeting of the group in Seoul rejected India’s bid in emphatic terms, reiterating that nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) would remain the bedrock of non-proliferation regime and the NSG, effectively ending Pakistan’s bid too. The group hasn’t completely barred the door to the two nation’s entry, but for the time being the question of South…
WASHINGTON: The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) strengthened global efforts to discourage proliferation by refusing to accept India as a member, said a senior US lawmaker. But a senior Obama administration official told Washington-based Indian journalists that he was confident India would be a full member of the NSG by the end of the year. The NSG recently held its annual and plenary sessions in Seoul, South Korea. The key issue before the plenary session was…
The writer is a freelance contributor based in Islamabad. Afghanistan has been a theatre of war for the last 35 years. In 1979, the then Soviet Union invaded the country. After the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, Afghanistan passed through a civil war until 1994. Since then, the Taliban ruled the country until toppled by the US in 2001. And since then, the Taliban have been fighting the US intervention. The biggest loss the country suffered…
The writer is a lawyer based in Islamabad. On Wednesday Amjad Sabri was assassinated on the streets of Karachi in cold blood. The Hakeemullah Mehsud group of the TTP reportedly claimed ‘credit’. Sabri’s stirring voice helped many recognise the strength of their bond with the Creator. But the TTP and their ilk thought he was a bad Muslim for he sang qawwalis. The day Imran Khan condoled the death of Sabri, he also defended Khyber…