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South Asia : Just Say 'Nuke'
*** The United States is tightening the screws on India and Pakistan to renounce their nuclear weapons programmes, but the two South Asian rivals are defiant. Kunda Dixit of IPS reports from Islamabad. ***
IN an effort to halt what It secs as a dangerous nuclear arms race in South Asia, the Untied States is putting increasing pressure on Pakistan and India to roll back their nuclear weapons programmes.
But both New Delhi and Islamabad are complaining they are being unfairly singled out. Pakistan says it will not be forced to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) unless India signs first. India says the NIT is discriminatory and gives its other rival in region. China, a monopoly on bombs and long-range missiles. ,
In post-Cold War geopolitics. Pakistan has lost its stature as a frontline state in Washingtons fight against communism. The United States is now cosylng up to New Delhi, and Pakistanis arc angry that US officials are not arm-twisting-New Delhi to abandon its military nuclear ambitions.
India recently tested its Agni' intermediate range ballistic missile which can deliver a 1,000 kg payload, to a distance of up to 2.500km. But when New Delhi tried to buy Russian rocket technology that could have given Its missiles and intercontinental range. Washington stopped the deal.
Indian military analysts say the Untied States is willing to tolerate a nuclear-armed India with medium-range missiles, but It will draw the line at inter-continental ballistic mis-siles (ICBM).
New Delhi feels It needs ICBM because China has them. Indeed. China has not been very subtle about showing off Its nuclear muscle, it set off a one megaton explosion In Slnkiang just when the Indian president was In Beijing for a
state visit in May.
Pakistani officials have recently stopped denying they have a bomb, and military experts say it is close to making one. India conducted an underground nuclear explosion in 1974. and Is said to have enough plutonium stockpiled to produce up to 200 nuclear warheads
With their bombs out of the closet, defence analysts on both sides argue that nuclear deterrence has actually prevented the two countries from going to war again, l-ast year. Pakistan proposed a five-power consultation to bring together the United States, Russia. India. Pakistan and China to stop nuclear proliferation In South Asia. The United Stales. China and Russia agreed to come, but India refused.
Pakistanis sec this as prof of India's ambition to emerge as a major regional power in the post-Cold War world, and they suspect the United States is grooming India to serve as a bulwark against the spread of radical Islam in the region.
Pakistanis bristle when their nuclear programme is referred to by Western officials as a project to make the ‘Islamic bomb.' Asked a retired Pakistani general at seminar in Islamabad recently: 'The Americans have the bomb. Is It
called a Christian bomb? The Indians exploded one, was it called a Hindu bomb? The Israelis have it. is it called a Jewish bomb? why Is ours called an Islamic bomb? Do bombs have religion?"
For Pakistan, things have not been the same after the Untied States slashed Its aid package In 1990 citing the Pressler amendment under which the US president has to certify to Congress that Pakistan does not have a military nuclear programme.
With the resolution of the Afghan crisis, Pakistan was not so important and Washington was looking at radical Islam as the new threat in 'the new world order'. Pakistan used to be one of the largest recipients of US military and economic assistance alongside Turkey. Egypt and Israel. Today, it gets Just USS300 million for a handful of development projects.
There are other pressures. Former US Secretary of State James Baker in a letter to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif threatened to label Pakistan a ’terrortot’ state unless it stopped helping Kashmiri separatists in India.
And only 30 of the 70 advanced Genera) Dynamics F-16 warplanes that Pakistan
bought from he Untied States have so far been delivered. Shipment of 10 more Jets were halted recently, and Islamabad is paying for their storage in US hangars.
Nuclear hardliners here accuse some senior members of the Pakistani civilian and military hierarchy of buckling under US Pressure. The air force
is vulnerable because of Its dependency on spare parts for its US made jets, and is said to be 'soft" on the nuclear Issue.
In a stinging attack on moderate elements in the government, one noted Pakistani commentator wrote: These habitual addicts of American aid are willing to barter away national sovereignty and even
national security nt the altar of ■ few million dollars."
Pakistani officials have been uncharacteristically blunt and defiant towards the United States in recent months. Secretary-General of the Fdreign Ministry Akram Zaki, who Is the country’s de facto foreign minister, said In Lahore recently.; The new world order Is a new word for imperialism."
India and Pakistan have fought three wars since 1947 when the subcontinent was partitioned. Bilateral tics have . been characterised by chronic paranoia. The primary cause for tension Is Kashmir. It Is progress on this issue that will increase security and help in the resolution of the nuclear Issue." said Zaki.
Some Pakistani officials also want the proposed five-power consultation on South Asian non-proliferation to include Israel. They fear a repeat of the daring Israeli raid on Iraq's nuclear installation on their own nuclear facilities.
Feelings are running high about US Pressure, and speakers at a pro-bomb seminar in Islamabad last month felt that if Pakistan signed, it would be "abject surrender and appeasement."