Problems of Proliferation

When President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev met at the summit last week, one of the so-called “minor” accomplishments was a joint declaration of intent to cooperate in discouraging the spread of nuclear weapons in the world. Actually, the two great powers have been cooperating in this area for several years. The need for even greater cooperation is evident.

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace released a study the other day warning that the danger of nuclear-weapons proliferation has increased markedly since 1984.

Expert Leonard Spector said that India had increased its nuclear-weapons production capability by 1,000% since it first exploded a nuclear device 11 years ago, and was moving toward the construction of “an undeclared nuclear arsenal.” Pakistan is on “the threshold of becoming a nuclear-weapons state.” Both nations have denied any intention of building a nuclear arsenal.

Spector observed that Israel is widely believe to have a ready-to-assemble stockpile of 20 to 25 nuclear weapons, while South Africa has acquired enough plutonium for 15 to 30 nuclear weapons. North Korea, while far from acquiring a nuclear-weapons capability, is moving ahead with efforts to build a large nuclear reactor that could produce plutonium for nuclear weapons.

It is against this somber background that the U.S. Senate last week gave belated approval to an agreement for civilian nuclear cooperation with China--an agreement that clears the way for many billions of dollars in potential U.S. sales of nuclear-power reactors and related technology to the Chinese. Peking already had signed such agreements with France, Italy, Great Britain, West Germany, Brazil and Japan.

Congressional approval of the U.S.-Chinese pact, initialed during President Reagan’s 1984 trip to China, had been delayed because of objections that China had contributed to Pakistan’s A-bomb program and was still engaged in “peaceful” nuclear cooperation with several countries suspected of wanting to join the nuclear club.

These were legitimate concerns, but China has joined the International Atomic Energy Agency and has promised not to contribute to the spread of nuclear weapons. The only beneficiaries of a U.S. embargo on nuclear trade with China would be the Europeans and the Japanese, who are lined up to take any business that we pass up because of non-proliferation considerations.

The Senate struck a common-sense balance by approving the nuclear-cooperation agreement subject to additional presidential assurances that China will not divert fissionable material to any nation trying to assemble a nuclear bomb.

The United States, meanwhile, may reasonably ask Moscow for assurances as to Soviet safeguards over nuclear materials and technology supplied to Cuba and North Korea.

The fight to block the spread of nuclear weapons is clearly in the interest of both great powers and the world generally.