The Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy and Pakistan: A Talk by Yukiya Amano

The IAEA greatly values cooperation with Pakistan in peaceful uses of nuclear technology

Mr Yukiya Amano, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), recently made a three-day official visit to Pakistan. He visited various centres and facilities of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) in Islamabad, Faisalabad and Karachi. He also visited Pakistani premier Mr Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. “Pakistan is completely implementing IAEA guidelines,” is the way he chose to describe the status quo while delivering his keynote address to a seminar on The Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy and Pakistan jointly organised by The Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA) and the Centre for International Strategic Studies (CISS) on 14 March 2018. During his visit to Karachi, Mr Amano praised Pakistan and stated that that the new Kanupp II and III “plants are very heavily protected. Your country needs more electricity and you are committed to nuclear safety; you are working with the IAEA”. He expressed the view that nuclear power should not be limited to developed nations and developing nations should also have the right to use atomic power.

Notably, on the military side of things, China has just sold Pakistan a powerful missile tracking system. The PIIA’s chairperson Dr Masuma Hasan introduced Mr Amano in her welcome address during which she highlighted Pakistan’s track record on nuclear safety and gave the welcome remarks. The important seminar was attended by participants from different walks of life including serving and retired diplomats, senior military officers, scientists, academics, scholars, media persons and university students. During the seminar Mr Amano said that: “You have the knowledge; you have the pool of well-trained people to do their job. We [IAEA and Pakistan] have a fruitful two-way relationship.” As reported in Dawn, the IAEA chief explained that while his organisation is known as a global nuclear watchdog, he is motivated by the body’s new motto: atoms for peace and development.

Reportage on PIIA’s Peace in South Asia Conference 2017

“The current policies of the United States of America for South Asia can disrupt peace in the region” – President Mamnoon Hussain at the 70^th Anniversary Conference of the PIIA.

Donald J Trump’s election to the White House demonstrates the extremely vulgar nature of American society. And it is difficult to disagree with the assessment that the American president really is a “deranged dotard”. Heaven knows, despite the tyrannical nature of his own country, North Korea’s insane “little rocket man” might even be making a valid point when he calls Trump’s sanity into question. Trump’s totally crazy brinkmanship with Pyongyang shows that he is willing to put the safety of billions of people at risk by his recklessness. But perhaps it is all just a charade to deliberately divert attention far away from emerging domestic problems connected to Robert Mueller’s investigation, the Sword of Damocles hanging over Trump and his cronies’ heads, about the Trump campaign’s collusion with the Kremlin to rig the election. Overall Trump is a sexist and a racist. He never tells the truth and serially dismisses all accusations of sexual misconduct/offending against him. Against American and British interests, he retweets from Britain First – a racist and neo-Nazi organisation.

His hatred of Muslims is so severe that he has even declared Jerusalem to be Israel’s capital. Clearly, he is deliberately destabilising the Middle East. Trump is a danger to the world and it is hard to disagree with the soft speaking figure of president Mamnoon Hussain that the present American administration is a threat to peace in South Asia (and indeed the rest of the world). The reckless and inflammatory rhetoric manifested by Trump can only bolster Hindus’ hatred for Muslims in India where killing Muslims for “love jihad” (or having a Hindu girlfriend or boyfriend) is seen as a force for good. In such testing times, The Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA) organised a regional conference which was held last month in Karachi. Esteemed speakers from all walks of life addressed the lively audience.

Tehmina Mahmood: What Must be Said – Unified Voice for ‘A Just Peace’

On 11 April 2012, a poem appeared in the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and in other European newspapers which led to a controversy in the west and definitely would cause concern in the western elite as the poem exposed the flaws in the international political system marred by the western hypocrisy in the name of peace and democracy. German Nobel Laureate Gunter Grass through his poem entitled Was gesagt werden muss – or ‘What Must be Said’ – termed Israel a threat to world peace and exposed the western hypocrisy in dealing with Israel and Iran’s nuclear programmes.

Grass points out that German government’s decision to sell sophisticated submarines equipped with nuclear capability to a country like Israel possessed with nuclear weapons and threatening to go for first strike against Iran prompted him to stand against western discriminatory policies.

Andrey V. Demidov: Russia’s relationship with Iran

We in Russia consider Iran as a very important nation, as a nation that has important influence on the world political climate. We know that during the period of last three decades Iran has achieved a lot in the fields of social development, politics and sports. We do our best to have good relations with Iran as well as with its people. There are almost no political disagreements between Russia and Iran at present. We attach serious importance to the development of mutually beneficial economic and scientific cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran. In our view, such cooperation is an important investment for the future.

Our cooperation in the field of nuclear energy is one of the core issues of our bilateral ties and of world politics. We in Russia are partisans of nuclear non-proliferation regime. Iran is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which in our view is an important component of the present-day international world order.