'Indo-US nuke deal will complicate Iran, N Korea issues'- The Times of India

'Indo-US nuke deal will complicate Iran, N Korea issues'- The Times of India

BEIJING: The historic Indo-US civilian nuclear deal has triggered the first salvo from a leading Chinese scholar who said the agreement smacks of "double standards" in global non-proliferation efforts and may complicate the Iran and North Korean issues.

"The United States' making an exception to accommodate India, driven by geo-political considerations, has, however, sent repercussions through the international non-proliferation infrastructure," Director of the Division for South Asian Studies under the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) a Chinese government/security linked think-tank, Hu Shisheng, said.

"The double standards will very likely complicate the nuclear issues of Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea all the more," Hu wrote in a lead article in the state-run 'China Daily' on the impact of US President George W. Bush's just-concluded visit to South Asia.
"Moreover, US-Indian nuclear cooperation might encourage other nuclear powers to have nuclear cooperation with their partners, which might trigger a chain reaction of nuclear-technology proliferation," he wrote amid indications that China may forge similar nuclear agreement with its "all weather" ally, Pakistan.

"Now the international community is presented with a big question: How can the effectiveness and binding power of the non-proliferation system be guaranteed?," he wrote.

China has reacted guardedly to the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, hoping that the cooperation of "relevant countries can contribute to these efforts, conforms to the regulations of the international non-proliferation regime and their own international obligations."