S. Asian Nuclear Status Quo Not Acceptable

WITH JUST two days left for his departure for South Asia, President Clinton made it clear yesterday that he did not intend to accept the nuclear status quo in the region. The President made the point in videotaped remarks to a Carnegie non-proliferation conference.

Referring to his trip to the region, Clinton said: There are those in the region who hope we will simply accept its nuclear status quo and move on. I will not do that. India and Pakistan have legitimate security concerns. But I will make clear our view that a nuclear future is a dangerous future for them and for the world.

 

During an extensive briefing later in the day on the President's trip, National Security Adviser Sandy Berger expanded on the theme of US insistence on the benchmarks that had been set forth.

Referring to the heart of the sanctions or the sanctions that relate to anything that has any military application, Berger asserted, we would like to see progress in the four areas I have talked about - adherence to CTBT, strong export controls, a fissile material cutoff and restraint in the nuclear program.

Unless these criteria are met, Berger said, we cannot realise the full potential of our relationship.

Even while continuing to exhibit a comparatively rigid stance on the non-proliferation issue, the Administration was eager to show that the nuclear and missile themes were not the only points of engagement.

Assistant Secretary of State Karl Inderfurth told newsmen yesterday that the Presidential team was going to India with a very broad agenda that was not focused on just one or two years. The agenda includes democracy and governance, business and economic relations, energy and the environment, science and technology, health and social development, education and cultural exchanges.

In all these areas, we have an opportunity to move forward in ways that will affect people's lives, Inderfurth noted. These are what people are concerned about. These affect their daily life.

On the sanctions, Inderfurth noted that the Presidential waiver was already being exercised. The Entities List had already been reduced by one-fourth. More importantly, the licensing procedure had been changed from one involving the presumption of denial to presumption of approval. He acknowledged, however, that there would be continued concerns about entities with direct nuclear or missile related activity. Discussions would continue on those.

Inderfurth indicated that the Presidential trip would be used to advantage to bring India and the US closer together in the ongoing effort to jump start the stalled WTO negotiations.

Commerce Secretary William Daley was part of the delegation. Deputy Trade Representative Ambassador Susan Esserman had already left for India, and serious discussions were in the offing.

Intervening in the Sandy Berger briefing, Deputy National Economic Advisor Lael Brainard maintained that India and the US had common interests in the trading system.

We have common interests in areas such as services trade, high-tech trade, and even some areas of agricultural trade, Brainard said. And we do want to deepen discussion with them, deepen engagement with them, to move forward on areas that are win-win.