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Pakistan to maintain its minimum N-deterrence

Pak MPs in India as peace moves peak

AFP, Islamabad
Pakistan will maintain its nuclear arms policy of "minimum deterrence" without indulging in an arms race, the military declared Thursday, in the wake of official pledges to give up its nuclear weapons if India follows suit.
A military statement, issued after a meeting Wednesday of top brass overseeing Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, comes amid a diplomatic detente with India after a 17-month standoff.
Pakistan says "minimum deterrence," whereby it maintains a large-enough nuclear arsenal to deter arch-rival India from using nuclear weapons against it, is the "cornerstone" of its national security policy.
The National Command Authority (NCA), chaired by President Pervez Musharraf met "to review progress of the country's strategic program," the statement said, a reference to its nuclear program.
The NCA "reiterated that while retention of minimum deterrence was the cornerstone of Pakistan's national security policy, Pakistan did not believe in an arms race," it stated.
Pakistan came out of the nuclear closet in May 1998 when it conducted a series of nuclear test explosions, within days of similar tests by its arch-rival India. It is estimated to possess 30 to 50 nuclear warheads.
Musharraf and foreign ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan both said this week that Pakistan would get rid of its nuclear arsenal if India followed, and if the 55-year old territorial dispute over Kashmir was resolved.
"If the Kashmir dispute is resolved and there is peace and security in the region, South Asia could be de-nuclearized, mutually by India and Pakistan," Musharraf said in a television interview Sunday.
Khan said Monday Pakistan
"would be very happy to denuclearise" if India did the same.
The NCA approved a number of proposals put forward by NCA secretariat and its strategic plans division at Wednesday's meet, but the statement gave no details.
Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali and Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri also attended the meeting.
Pakistan moved a resolution in the United Nations General Assembly in November 1995 calling for the establishment of a nuclear weapons free zone in South Asia.
Meanwhile, thirteen Pakistani MPs arrived in India Thursday for a week-long unofficial visit expected to include meetings at the parliament in New Delhi amid peace moves between the neighbouring nuclear rivals.
Television channels showed the group crossing into India on foot through the Wagah border point in the northern Indian state of
Punjab, the only legal land crossing between the two countries.
They were garlanded by local officials after stepping onto Indian territory.
The visit follows recent peace overtures between the countries, which have been locked in a dangerous stand-off for 17 months.
In the past few days both the Indian and Pakistani governments have announced the resumption of diplomatic and air links, severed in December 2001 after a deadly attack on India's parliament which New Delhi blamed on gunmen backed by Islamabad.
The attack triggered the mobilisation of one million troops to their common border and brought them to the brink of war until last October.
Reports said the MPs would be given a formal welcome by officials in the nearby city of Amritsar, where they are expected to visit the Golden Temple -- the most important shrine of the Sikh religion.