POLITICS-U.S.: Washington “Regrets” Pakistani Missile Launch

By Jim Lobe Reprint | | Print |

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Apr 6 1998 (IPS) - The United States, worried about prospects for a new spiral in the arms race between Pakistan and India, is expressing “regret” over Islamabad’s test-firing of a new missile capable of reaching deep into India’s territory.

The launch of the Ghauri ballistic missile Monday, which Pakistani spokesmen said was linked to the new, Hindu nationalist government in New Delhi, will likely rocket to the top of the agenda in talks this week between a high-level US delegation and its Indian and Pakistani counterparts.

Washington’s UN Ambassador, Bill Richardson, and Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Karl Inderfurth are travelling to South Asia this week in hopes of furthering a diplomatic offensive in the region launched last November by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

That effort is designed to forge new links between the United States and the two South Asian powers, as well as to encourage both nuclear-capable countries to ease tensions. But Monday’s test makes it certain that, once again, proliferation will become “the number one issue on the agenda,” said one senior official.

“The United States regrets this missile test and calls on both Pakistan and India to exercise restraint,” said State Departments spokesman James Foley. “The United States has long believed that the development or acquisition of ballistic missiles by Pakistan or by India would be destabilizing and undermine the security of both countries.”

He added that, with a new government in Delhi led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), “we believe it is especially important to avoid steps in the nuclear missile areas that could be seen as provocative and could adversely affect the political and security environment in the region.”

“This is not a good thing in the sense of the dynamic between the two countries,” said one senior official. “It’s a warning signal to the Indians, and it may not be the last of these tests,” he added.

The launch of the Ghauri missile, which has a 1,500-km. range, was called a “landmark in our efforts to acquire a credible indigneous missile capability” by a spokesman for the government of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He insisted that the test should be considered only as a “research and development effort,” and not as deployment of a potent new weapon in Pakistan’s arsenal.

The test follows last month’s announcement by the new Indian government, which is headed by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, that it “will re-evaluate (the country’s) nuclear policy and exercise the option to induct nuclear weapons” into its arsenal.

That statement was taken by US officials here as a compromise BJP hawks who favour openly testing nuclear weapons and declaring India a nuclear-weapons state and doves who believe such a step risked isolating India diplomatically.

While ambiguous, the BJP statement has been seen as provocative by Islamabad which Monday called the BJP’s rise to power as a “qualitative change in the region (and) a dangerous development,” according to reports published here. Washington responded to the statement by warning both countries that any additional steps taken by either India or Pakistan to further their nuclear weapons programmes could result in stringent new export controls of US high-tech equipment.

In New Delhi, Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes reportedly charged that China had supplied the missile technology used in the test – a charge denied by Pakistan. The State Department’s Foley also stressed that it was premature to conclude that Beijing had a role.

“We have observed in the past that China has provided assistance to Pakistan’s ballistic missile efforts,” he said. “However, Pakistan had sought missile-related assistance from a number of suppliers, and it should not be assumed in this case that China was the supplier.”

One US intelligence official described the Ghauri missile as based on a North Korean model and insisted that China likely played no role in its development. Chinese short-range M-11 missiles, were apparently shipped to Pakistan by 1992 and could become operational with little delay, according to a recent report by the influential Council on Foreign Relations.

India, which became a nuclear-capable power in 1974, has test- fired two ballistic missiles in the past two years: the Prithvi, which has a range of about 400 kms. and can hit most Pakistani cities from Indian territory less than five minutes after launch; and the middle-range Agni, which could reach well into China from India’s northern border.

Last June, Pakistan charged that India had actually deployed the Prithvi missile at various sites near their common border. At the time, Pakistani Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan told Albright that Pakistan would be compelled to take “appropriate countermeasures.”

India denied the charge, and the two sides went ahead with high- level talks in Islamabad on easing tensions.

The latest developments all take place just as the Clinton administration had planned to deepen its own involvement in the region in part by offering to help mediate a range of problems. Clinton himself plans to travel to both countries later this year.

Back in 1994, Clinton sent Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott to the region in an unsuccessful effort to get both countries to cap their nuclear programmes in a verifiable manner and enter into multilateral talks which would also include the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – all declared nuclear powers – as well as Germany and Japan.

India turned down the plan. A subsequent offer to Pakistan to supply advanced US warplanes in exchange for a verifiable cap on its nuclear programme was rebuffed by Islamabad.

Last year, the administration endorsed a new approach urged by a task force of the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations. It called for reducing somewhat Washington’s emphasis on weapons proliferation in favour of more comprehensive ties with both countries, including “a closer strategic relationship” with India.

On proliferation, the focus of US policy, according to the task force, should be to establish “a more stable and sustainable plateau for Indian and nuclear relations” and focus primarily on preventing any weapons testing or missile deployment.