6. Nuclear Issues
Pakistani Chief Executive Pervez Musharraf proposed talks for a "nuclear restraint regime" with India.
"Nuclear restraint regime: Pakistan ready for talks with India, says CE"
British Foreign Minister Peter Hain accused Pakistan of rapidly becoming "a threat to world peace" and claimed a link between global terrorism and Pakistan's export of nuclear capability to Afghanistan. A Pakistan Foreign Office statement said that Pakistan has never exported nuclear materials to any country and that, "if nuclear canisters were discovered in Afghanistan they must have been left by the Soviet Union. We must ask why these stocks were not removed when the Soviet army withdrew from Afghanistan."
"Pakistan becoming threat to world peace: UK"
Pakistan denies exporting N-material
In response to press reports that Pakistan is preparing for a new series of nuclear tests [See SANDNet, May 10], U.S. National Security Advisor Sandy Berger warned that additional testing would lead to the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions. U.S. Under-secretary of State Thomas Pickering traveled to Islamabad to discuss this and other issues with Chief Executive Pervez Musharraf. Pakistan Foreign Office statements said that Pakistan would "abide by its unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing," but that it "resolved to consolidate Pakistan's nuclear capability to deter aggression."
"Pakistan Nuclear Planning" [SANDNet, May 10]
"Another Pak. nuclear test will be a setback: U.S."
"Pickering going to Pak amid N-test rumours"
"No more nuclear tests: Pakistan"
" Pak to consolidate N-capability"
Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar said that Pakistan would not sign the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon state. He later told U.S. Under-secretary of State Thomas Pickering that Pakistan would "play a positive role" in negotiating an equitable fissile material cut-off treaty. Pickering urged Pakistan to sign the CTBT and NPT.
"No NPT signing as non-nuclear state: Sattar"
" Pak evolving consensus on CTBT"
An editorial (in The News) argues that U.S.-Pakistan divergences in nuclear thinking are not new. However, the differences are being expressed more stridently as the U.S. attempts to recast its global role in a post-Cold War world. Another editorial (in Dawn) supports Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar's statement that Pakistan would continue to be a responsible nuclear power. Lt-General Talat Masood (ret) analyzes the differences between nuclear and non-nuclear powers that, he argues, must be resolved before the NPT agenda becomes a useful instrument of global nuclear disarmament. Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistan's leading atomic scientist, urged the government of Pakistan to stop "harping on [the nuclear tests] two years ago. It was a good thing. It gave us a viable deterrence, but please forget it now. Now concentrate on the development of science and technology." Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto calls upon India and Pakistan "to jointly or singly adhere quickly to the CTBT; announce a moratorium on fissile material production; resist the development, flight-testing, and storage of ballistic weapons; and strengthen export controls on nuclear technology."
"At odds with the US"
" Correct response"
" NPT and the emerging strategic landscape" Lt-General Talat Masood (retd)
"Look ahead, says father of Pak. a-bomb"
"Horrors of nuclear war beyond our imagination" Benazir Bhutto