Pak. proposes nuclear restraint regime

By Amit Baruah

ISLAMABAD, JUNE 13. For the first time since the military took over in Pakistan, the Musharraf Government today offered India a strategic restraint regime in both the nuclear and conventional fields on a ``reciprocal basis''.

In a statement ahead of the resumption of the non- proliferation dialogue between Pakistan and the United States from June 15, an official statement said, ``Pakistan has proposed to India a strategic restraint regime for avoidance of an arms race, nuclear and conventional, and confidence-building in the region. We are willing to consider any restraint arrangement on a reciprocal basis with India.''

The offer was first made by Pakistan during the October 15-18, 1998 Foreign Secretary-level talks held here under the ``two plus six'' dialogue structure agreed to in June 1997.

Today's offer has been made by the military regime while the earlier proposal came from the civilian Nawaz Sharif Government. India and Pakistan discussed nuclear risk reduction measures in October 1998 and the issue came up for discussion in the Lahore round as well.

A memorandum of understanding signed by the Foreign Secretaries in Lahore on February 20, 1999 reads: ``The two sides shall engage in bilateral consultations on security concepts and nuclear doctrines, with a view to developing measures for confidence-building in the nuclear and conventional fields, aimed at avoidance of conflict.'' In fact, experts from the two countries were to meet after the Lahore round to discuss these issues when Pakistan embarked on Kargil and upset the process of bilateral engagement.

In today's statement, two days before the Foreign Minister, Mr. Abdul Sattar, meets the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Mr. Strobe Talbott, in Washington, Pakistan stated it was committed to a ``policy of responsibility and restraint'' on nuclear issues. ``The Government welcomes the resumption of dialogue with the U.S. because it represents an important effort at preventing a nuclear arms race and arms build-up in South Asia, where the security climate continues to remain tense on account of the unresolved Jammu and Kashmir dispute,'' it said.

The ninth round of dialogue between the U.S. and Pakistan, like the earlier ones, will focus on American concerns relating to nuclear export controls, the CTBT, a moratorium on production of fissile material pending negotiations on the FMCT, a halt to missile development and Islamabad agreeing to CBMs with New Delhi to reduce nuclear dangers.

This will be the first formal engagement between the U.S. and Pakistan on these issues after the October 12, 1999 military coup. There is little doubt that the ``restraint'' proposal has been made in a calculated fashion before Mr. Sattar's talks with Mr. Talbott. However, the military Government has now re- committed itself publicly to such measures.

One of the problems that cropped up in October 1998 was that Pakistan insisted on linking its ``strategic restraint regime'' to Kashmir, which was unacceptable to India. Hopefully, Pakistan may have realised by now that projecting Kashmir as a ``nuclear flashpoint'' has boomeranged. Western countries too have not been impressed with this linkage.

Nuclear and conventional risk-reduction proposals will have that much more meaning if they are accompanied by a fundamental commitment to the bilateral dialogue structure as agreed to by the Foreign Secretaries in June 1997 and the two Prime Ministers in February 1999.

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