Itrat Naqvi
The United States approach towards Pakistan has been changed to a greater extent after fulfillment of its interests in Afghanistan. US policymakers have replaced Pakistan with its arch-rival India for execution of its policies in Afghanistan. They are also worried about the rise of China in the coming decade and hedging their bets at India to counter China’s rise. Hence, US policy makers/ administration are taking all necessary steps to appease India by limiting cooperation with Pakistan. Recently, US government has announced sanctions against seven Pakistani entities allegedly associated with the country’s missile programme. The notification by the US Department of Commerce said that the entities have been added to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) list “determined by the US government to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States”.
The seven identified entities include Ahad International, Air Weapons Complex (AWC), Engineering Solutions, Maritime Technology Complex (MTC) , National Engineering and Scientific Commission (NESCOM), New Auto Engineering (NAE) and Universal Tooling Services. Just like India, the United States did not share evidence of any wrongdoing before leveling the aforementioned against Pakistani entities. Pakistan missile and nuclear programs are completely indigenous. The US sanctions will have “little bearing” on working of abovementioned entities. Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stated that Pakistan is ready to work with the U.S. at the level of experts to devise mutually agreed-upon procedures for end-use guarantees. “This will help in assuring non-diversion of high-technology exports from the US without hampering our legitimate imports for socioeconomic development activities,” the Pakistani spokesman said.
Contrary to this, US managed to secure Indian membership of Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) in order to streamline its missile assistance to India which is a blatant violation of international nuclear non-proliferation regime. India remains one of the worst countries in terms of nuclear safety and security at its nuclear installations due to non-adherence to International Atomic Energy Agency’s set guidelines for safe and secure operation of nuclear facilities. There have been numerous accidents at various facilities in India.
On 26 December, Indian DRDO tested Agni-V, a 5,000-km range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), widely regarded as a strategic missile targeted at China as it can reach almost all parts of the Chinese mainland. By testing an ICBM, India has broken the UN’s limits on its development of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missile. In response to Indian provocation West and US has remained silent, which depicts Western countries accept India as a nuclear country and are indifferent to the nuclear race between India and Pakistan. Raising security dilemma, the ICBM launch will escalate the ongoing arms race between India and Pakistan.
The US and Israel are providing state of the art modern technologies to India to assist her in development and modernization of missile program. The US has made tremendous efforts to secure Indian membership of MTCR as well. The Grossi formula by US official to streamline Indian entry is another effort by US to get Indian membership of NSG. On the other hand, US has sanctioned Pakistani entities which are strictly following international regimes and are working on strategic development almost indigenously. Hence, the fragile strategic stability of the region is at the risk of failure due to discriminatory approach of US and West in South Asia.
