China confirms 2 nuclear reactors for Pakistan

China on Tuesday gave its firmest government confirmation yet of plans to build two new nuclear reactors for Pakistan, but a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said she did not know about talks over a bigger reactor deal.

The spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, said China planned to help Pakistan expand the Chashma nuclear energy complex by building two reactors in addition to one already operating and another nearing completion.

“This project is based on an agreement signed between the two countries in 2003 about cooperation in the nuclear power field,” Jiang said.

Jiang was also asked about the China National Nuclear Corp’s statement on Monday that it is in talks to build a one-gigawatt nuclear reactor for Pakistan, in addition to the four smaller Chashma units built, being finished or planned.

“We don’t understand this matter. You can make further inquiries with the company,” Jiang said.

The Wall Street Journal earlier reported that China’s main nuclear power company was in talks with Pakistan to build a one-gigawatt nuclear power plant.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Office on Tuesday said Pakistan was holding talks with China to build a new nuclear power plant.

“We have an ongoing civil nuclear cooperation agreement with China which is according to our respective international obligations for peaceful purposes under the IAEA safeguards,” Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said.

Sino-Pak N-deal meets int’l obligations: China

Chinese Embassy in Washington said Sunday, China believes that its agreement to install two new nuclear reactors in Pakistan does not violate international obligations, Geo news reported.

In a statement to the US media, the embassy’s spokesman Wang Baodong told the US media Beijing is convinced the reactor agreement “goes along well with the international obligations China and Pakistan carry in relation to the international nuclear non-proliferation regime”.

A US expert, Mark Hibbs of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, endorsed the Chinese position but urged Beijing to be careful.

“The US doesn’t really have any options…..the Nuclear Suppliers Group’s guidelines are voluntary. There is nothing the US can do to prevent China from going ahead with this deal,” he said.

“Unless Washington comes up with a very, very attractive offer, the history of Chinese-Pakistani relations is such that it is unlikely that this deal will not go through,” Heritage Foundation researcher Dean Cheng told the US media.

A State Department official disagreed with the suggestion but did so rather meekly.

The United States “suspects” that China would need a waiver from a nuclear export control group to move ahead with the sale of two atomic energy plants to Pakistan, a department official told the Washington Times.

Iran, Turkey agree on nuclear swap deal

After several hours of intense negotiations, the trilateral meeting between Iran, Brazil and Turkey ends with Tehran agreeing to ship its domestic low-enriched uranium to Turkey.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Monday that the Tehran government has agreed to a draft proposal whereby Iran will send some 1200 kg of its 3.5 percent enriched uranium over to Turkey in exchange for a total of 120 kg 20 percent.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will officially receive a letter with regards to the swap deal “within a week”.