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Clinton-Sharief summit to pursue adherence to CTBT

US President Bill Clinton will pursue non-proliferation and security issues during his meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief in Washington on December 2, expecting that Islamabad would ultimately sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

Asked whether Clinton would press Sharief to sign the CTBT or to make a commitment to do so, White House spokesman Joe Lockhart told the media yesterday that the Pakistani prime minister and his Indian counterpart, A B Vajpayee, had made a commitment at the United Nations General Assembly in September last to adhere to the treaty by September 1999 -- the date by which it would come into force.

''Now what we're looking for is an actual signature and ratification of the CTBT,'' the spokesman said, urging both India and Pakistan to do so.

He also listed a series of non-proliferation measures that the US expected the two countries to observe. These included developing a restraint regime, covering nuclear weapons and their means of delivery, strengthening of export-control system for sensitive technologies and material and a moratorium on the production of fissile materials for weapons purposes pending negotiations on a proposed treaty, banning the production of such material.

Asked whether he had a read-out or a statement listing the topics of discussions at the proposed Clinton-Sharief meeting, Lockhart replied in negative but added, ''You can assume that the president will continue with the ongoing dialogue particularly on issues of non-proliferation and security.''

He parried questions about the exact date and time by which India would sign the CTBT and ratify it or whether both India and Pakistan would sign the treaty at the same time.

Meanwhile, Pakistani Information Minister Syed Mushahid Hussain, who is in Washington in advance of Sharief's visit, yesterday said the Clinton-Sharief meeting would mark ''a new chapter'' in the bilateral relationship between the United States and Pakistan. The ''long phase of unilateral (US) pressures on Pakistan is going to be behind us,'' he said in an apparent reference to the Pressler Amendment in pursuance of which the United States in 1990 banned all economic and military aid to Islamabad in protest against its nuclear weapons programme.

Hussain noted with an apparent sense of satisfaction that the US had of late been increasingly adopting an even-handed approach in dealing with Pakistan and India on issues of security and non-proliferation which was evident at the time of the imposition of nuclear-related sanctions in May and recent relaxation in them.

In the past, only Pakistan was subjected to sanctions many of which were Pakistan specific, he said in a reference to the Pressler Amendment, a legislative measure to check the proliferation of weapons.

''We are looking forward to a relationship (with the US) which is relatively friction-free and based on shared perceptions and interests," he said while speaking at a breakfast meeting hosted by the American Muslim Conference, a leading Muslim advocacy group in Washington.

The minister said, ''There is now greater understanding of Pakistani positions in Washington on various bilateral, regional and international issues.''

Hussain said the Clinton-Sharief talks would have a special focus on the Kashmir issue which had re-emerged on the international agenda in the aftermath of the nuclear tests in South Asia. ''There is now a wide recognition that issue of peace and security in South Asia are inextricably linked to the resolution of the Kashmir issue,'' he added.

He said Pakistan wanted "greater US engagement as a facilitator to help the process of resolution of the Kashmir issue.''

"Without a third-party involvement, the dialogue between India and Pakistan on underlying causes of their tensions including Kashmir, only degenerate into a dialogue of the deaf. Past experience shows that India and Pakistan have resolved some of their outstanding disputes through third party involvement only.''

He said Pakistan's commitment to adhere to the CTBT by September 1999 did not mean it was succumbing to US pressure. Pakistan wanted to sign the treaty in an atmosphere free of coercion, he added.

UNI

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