Brussels, May 24: US-led calls for sanctions on India over its nuclear tests will be snubbed by the European Union on Monday, despite growing concern about the threat they pose to the security and stability of the sub-continent.In a statement to be adopted by foreign ministers from the EU's 15 member states at their monthly meeting, the bloc will condemn the tests as a "grave threat to international peace and security," call for their immediate cessation and urge India to sign up to the 1996 Comprehensive test ban treaty (CTBT), diplomats said.
The EU will also call on Pakistan not to implement its threat of responding to India's action by carrying out its own tests.
The statement will not completely close off the possibility of sanctions being imposed in the future, by saying that EU-India relations will be kept under "active review" in light of the testing issue.But despite the tough language, there is little enthusiasm among EU governments for suspending aid, as both the US and Japan, the biggestaid donors to India, have done in the aftermath of the May 11 and 13 tests.
"It is difficult to see what that would achieve, other than inflicting further suffering on the poorest sections of Indian society," said one EU diplomat.
The firm stance represents a setback to the US administration's hopes of persuading the Europeans to back its action against India.
Britain and France, who carried out their own programmes of nuclear testing in the South Pacific in 1995, made their opposition to sanctions clear at last weekend's group of eight summit in Birmingham, England.
But that did not prevent US president Bill Clinton expressing optimism that the EU would eventually come round to backing Washington's approach.The ministers are expected to take the first steps towards stripping Croatia of certain trade privileges in protest at the Zagreb government's failure to facilitate the return of Serb refugees who fled the country during the 1992-95 war in neighbouring Bosnia.
They will also issue a green lightfor the European Commission to negotiate a nuclear cooperation accord with Japan.Talks on the accord, which will cover nuclear trade and cooperation in research, are to begin in June. The turmoil in Indonesia, the conflict between the Yugoslav government and separatists in the troubled province of Kosovo, the peace process and the EU's strained relations with Turkey are also on the agenda for Tuesday's talks.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
