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US may ease economic sanctions 'soon'

The Bill Clinton administration may ease economic sanctions "soon", in response to India's "encouraging indication" about the timing of its signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

US state department spokesperson James Rubin, who indicated this in Washington yesterday, did not specify the certain date by which India would sign the treaty.

"We've received some encouraging indication on the timing that we are considering how to respond to but I can't be more specific," he added.

He also did not specify as to which particular sector would be freed from curbs imposed after India's May nuclear tests. "We are considering appropriate response," he said.

Indications are that the US may drop its opposition to World Bank loans for India's infrastructure sector. The bank has withheld approval of its projects, involving a loan of about 1.7 billion dollars, after the nuclear tests.

In reply to a question, Rubin said, "Progress has been made" during the US-India non-proliferation talks in New Delhi last week.

"The dialogue was productive and generated new momentum. There is some encouragement on the part of our negotiators," he added.

He said Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, who led the US side in the New Delhi talks, had discussed this matter with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

"There are some indications that the Indians are going to move in a direction that will allow us to respond with moves of our own," he said in reply to a correspondent who said the talks had ended without an outcome.

Asked to define movement in the right direction, he said, "With respect to the signing of the Comprehensive Test Ban (Treaty)... we received some encouraging indications on the timing."

"I think there were some indications that this was a very good session," Rubin said about the New Delhi talks.

He also drew attention to the join statement issued after the talks in New Delhi and said "the negotiators would greatly contest your 'no outcome' conclusion. Let me say that there were a number of discussions about the various issues of non-proliferation in the US-Indian relationship."

Asked to comment on reports that India had made a "conditional offer" to sign the CTBT and Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmad's statement that "we're not aiming at any agreements," Rubin replied, "Well, I will leave India and Pakistan to describe their own positions to you. That's not really appropriate for me to say.

"We have said all along that our sanctions policy will be adjusted, based on progress in non-proliferation negotiations. Progress has been made in these most recent negotiations, and we are consulting the congress and other members of the international community on how to respond to movement in the right direction, in terms of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty," he added.

"We've seen some indication of movement in the right direction, and we have always said we would respond to movements in the right direction by India and Pakistan with easing of some of the steps (sanctions) by the United States,'' the spokesperson said.

Asked whether the United States would lift its hold on international financial institutions lending in response to India's gesture, Rubin reiterated, "I'm not prepared to describe specifically, in this particular forum, what we're prepared to do."

In reply to another question, he said there was no need to consult the congress on easing sanctions or for the congress to take certain actions.

The US has been pressing India to sign the CTBT immediately and without any conditions for the administration to consider relaxation in the economic sanctions.

UNI

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