Political Aspects of Nuclear Energy Market Development in the Countries of South Asia. NSG Factor in Promoting Nuclear Energy in the Region
Abstract
South Asian geopolitical face-off of Delhi and Islamabad revealed breaches of the nuclear nonproliferation. This encouraged the greatest nuclear powers to create a mechanism for additional regulation of the nuclear technology and materials export, which is now known as “Nuclear Suppliers’ Group”. This mechanism aims to impose restrictions for the nuclear technology and materials export to the countries that are not members of NPT. These are nuclear programs of India and Pakistan that are pressing challenge on the agenda. India has been a very attractive market for nuclear suppliers, especially the United States, so the restrictions were lifted from Delhi in 2008. However, they remained valid for Pakistan, which wasn’t an appealing market for the American nuclear exporters. As a result, China, which has been a member of NSG since 2004, has initiated building new NPPs in Pakistan getting mixed reaction of the international community. Despite the clearly contradicting Guidelines, the members of NSG haven’t reached common ground on how to restore its supporting role in maintaining the non-proliferation regime. Thus, the Asian nuclear market develops mostly spontaneously, and its future is shaped primarily by the international relations between importers and exporters. Russia isn’t able to influence all the NSG members to change the position, however it can take advantage of the situation for developing nuclear cooperation with the Asian countries to support sustainable development of the South Asian energy market.
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