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Chidanand Rajghatta
WASHINGTON, Feb 22: The Clinton administration and Washington's army of proliferation experts, analysts and oracles have welcomed the rapid and unexpected confidence-building measures initiated by India and Pakistan especially with regard to nuclear and missile developments, saying it makes the volatile region a much safer place.
``It's a good development. We have been nudging both sides towards such a dialogue and we are happy they have committed their governments to resolving all outstanding issues, including Kashmir,'' a State Department official said on Monday, as news of Prime Minister Vajpayee's pathbreaking trip was scrutinised here.
The official said the US did play a role only insofar as urging the two sides to talk ``but the idea of bus diplomacy was not ours.'' President Clinton had written to both leaders last fortnight encouraging them to have a dialogue, he added.
As the two nuclear neighbours belied the many American prophets of doom who make a living out of predicting apocalypicscenarios, Washington's non-proliferation community cautiously welcomed the developments as they sought more details of the various CBMs.
``It is a very positive sign and hopefully India and Pakistan have learned from the irrational and dangerous excess of the Cold War," said George Perkovitch, a proliferation analyst whose book on nuclear weapons programmes in the subcontinent is due this Fall.
Perkovitch said the agreement by both countries on alerting each other to ``accidental, unauthorised or unexplained'' nuclear incidents `makes tremendous sense.' But both countries needed to move towards greater technical capabilities to meet these good intentions, he added.
Only a few in the non-proliferation community noted that the two countries had moved forward bilaterally without the US playing the role of honest broker. In fact, there was some surprise that the two new nuclear neighbours could arrive at even such a rudimentary agreement, given that they are portrayed here as unstable, war-mongeringcountries now armed with nuclear weapons.
``In that sense, it is in the shared interest of both India and Pakistan to present to the outside world a sane image and move away from the profile of rogue states,'' said Prof Stephen Cohen, a South Asia expert currently at the Brookings Institute.
Even State Department officials acknowledged the bilateral nature of the developments. ``This was at the initiative of India and Pakistan... the full credit belongs to them,'' a State Department spokesman said.
Cohen said the rapid developments were expected once the BJP got the hang of its foreign policy direction because Prime Minister Vajpayee was inclined in the direction of the Gujral Doctrine. ``In fact, as foreign minister in 1977, he initiated an open foreign policy towards Pakistan so his instincts were right,'' he said.
Experts agreed that India and Pakistan had moved rapidly towards a nuclear detente given that both countries went overtly nuclear less than a year ago, but some argued they still had somedistance to go.
Contesting the suggestion that the neo-nuclear powers held out a lesson in arms control to the US and the former USSR, which allowed a buildup of 60,000 nuclear weapons before scaling down, Perkovitch said the super powers went much further in terms of establishing verification regimes and hot lines. ``These CBMs are a definite sign of progress. But India and Pakistan have to commit themselves to more,'' he said.
The State Department meanwhile also commended the commitment of the two governments to improving the quality of life in the sub-continent saying the realisation that eonomic development was important to the region was crucial.
While policy wonks analysed the stories trickling out of the sub-continent, US newsapers gave wide coverage to the event with correspondents from major publications reporting from Lahore. But coverage was scant on network and cable television which were more excited by the prospect of an erupting war in Kosovo than peace breaking out inthe world's most populous region.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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This story was printed from Net Express located at http://www.expressindia.com. Net Express provides a portal to India, with news from The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with sites on travel and tourism, the entertainment industry, the power sector, the environment and much more.
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