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CTBT will be signed by September: Indian, Pak envoys

C K Arora in Washington

India's Ambassador to the US Naresh Chandra and his Pakistani counterpart Riaz Khokar have restated their respective government's commitment to adhere to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty by September next. They, however, have not indicated how they would stick to the deadline.

''September 1999 remains a national commitment,'' Naresh Chandra said while participating in a discussion in Washington yesterday on the possibility of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir issue. Both the envoys ruled out such an eventuality.

They wanted the United States to lift the economic sanctions it had imposed on the two counties after their nuclear tests in May last year.

The discussion was moderated by proliferation expert George Perkovich.

Dr Stephen Cohen, a south Asia expert of the Brookings Institution, also participated.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharief made the commitment on the CTBT in the UN General Assembly last year.

Vajpayee now is only a care-taker prime minister and is not expected to take a vital decision like signing the CTBT during the run-up to the parliamentary elections.

Khokar said Pakistan was still committed to signing the CTBT but it would do so in an atmosphere free of pressure and coercion. It would be difficult to sell the treaty to Pakistanis under duress, he added.

He made it clear that Pakistan's nuclear programme was India-specific while Chandra spoke of the wider nature of India's security concerns.

Chandra did refer to the nuclear programme of China but without identifying the Communist state.

He said India wanted a stable and prosperous Pakistan.

He was critical of the West for lecturing India on non-proliferation ignoring its security concerns. ''Their concept of non-proliferation ignores our security concerns,'' he added.

Earlier, Perkovich criticised the US for lack of introspection on its nuclear policy even as it lectured India and Pakistan on the virtues of non-proliferation.

UNI

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