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Two Premiers give friendship a chance

Pamela Philipose

LAHORE, Feb 21: The most substantial gains of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's visit to Lahore seem to have been in the area of augmenting confidence building measures (CBMs) between the two countries to prevent a possible nuclear war. Vajpayee and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had two rounds of one-to-one talks within a duration of 24 hours.

Although the hope of a no-war declaration that many had hoped would emerge from these current negotiations was belied, in a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan, both nations agreed to provide each other with advance notification in respect of ballistic missile flight tests. Besides this, both nations will undertake national measures to reduce the risks of accidental or unauthorised use of nuclear weapons under their respective control.

In the event of an accidental or unauthorised incident, that could create the risk of a fallout with adverse consequences for both sides, or an outbreak of a nuclear warbetween the two countries, the two sides undertook to notify each other about the development.

The two sides will now identify/establish the appropriate communication mechanisms for this purpose. While they agreed to abide by their respective unilateral moratorium on conducting further nuclear test explosions, there was a qualifying clause: ``Unless either side, in exercise of its national sovereignty decides that extraordinary events have jeopardised its supreme interests''.

These CBMs will be periodically reviewed and, where necessary, appropriate consultative mechanisms to monitor and ensure their effective implementation would be put in place. The two sides will also review existing communication links with a view to upgrading and improving these links and to provide for fail-safe and secure communications.

In reply to a question whether the two sides had discussed the issue of the signing of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, Prime Minister Vajpayee replied in the affirmative but added that nodecision has been taken on it.The Memorandum of Understanding was one of the three documents that emerged at the end of the talks, the others being the Lahore Declaration and a Joint Statement.

In the Lahore Declaration, signed by both Prime Ministers in front of an assembly of mediapersons in the majestic wood-panelled Durbar Hall of the Governor's House, both governments agreed to ``intensify their efforts to resolve all issues, including the issue of Jammu and Kashmir''.

They also undertook to refrain from intervening and interfering in each other's internal affairs, and ``shall intensify their composite and integrated dialogue process''.

Interestingly, this clause came in particularly handy for both Prime Ministers when confronted with sticky questions from the media, like progress on the Kashmir issue for instance. They just reiterated that the dialogue process was going on.

Under the Joint Statement, the two leaders agreed to meet periodically to discuss all issues of mutual concern, includingnuclear-related issues. Consultations on WTO and those related to information technology, particularly in tackling the problems of Y2K, will take place. It also carried Prime Minister Vajpayee's invitation to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to visit India at a mutually convenient date.

According to Sharif, the biggest gain was that the ice was broken. ``Both sides have agreed to consult each other,'' said Sharif and added that both nations must now desist from blaming each other constantly for whatever happens in their mutual countries. Earlier that evening, speaking to a large gathering of Lahore's elite, at a civic reception on the well-manicured lawns of Governor's House, Vajpayee had already touched upon the theme. ``I believe that the distance between Delhi and Lahore has shrunk,'' he said.

Seeking to explain why he, a poet and a man who had written about the horrors of Hiroshima, had presided as Prime Minister over the Pokharan explosion last May he said that it was not intended to attack but todefend, an attempt to use shakti for shanti. He recognised that being nuclear states imposed new responsibilities on both nations. ``It is vital that Pakistan and India come together. There is no alternative to dialogue,'' he said, ``because we can change our friend but not our neighbours, because we can change history but not geography.'' Enough of enmity, give friendship a chance, was the message.

Incidentally, while his speech at the civic reception did not touch upon the contentious issue of Kashmir, when he addressed the media later he stated that Jammu and Kashmir is one of the issues that was being discussed within the framework of the composite dialogue that the two countries were conducting with each other.

Later in New Delhi, agencies add, Vajpayee said India has asked Pakistan to ensure that killing of innocent people in Jammu and Kashmir by terrorists must stop and warned if the current wave of cross-border terrorism continued, it would be difficult to normalise bilateral ties.On his return after the two-day visit, Vajpayee told reporters that he drew the attention of his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif to the spate of killings of innocent civilians in J&K. ``On the issue of terrorism, I drew the attention of Nawaz Sharif to Rajouri killings,'' Vajpayee said, adding ``If this continued, it would be difficult to normalise relations between the two countries.'' Sharif assured him that he would look into the incident, Vajpayee said.

Replying to a question on the demonstration by Jamaat-e-Islami at Lahore against his visit, Vajpayee said: ``Whatever happened in Lahore was not against my visit but it was the internal politics of Pakistan... It was anti-government,'' he said.

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