The Foreign Office has urged New Delhi to continue to observe moratorium on nuclear tests and said Pakistan is concerned over reports about India planning new nuclear tests. ‘We hope that the unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing effective since 1998 in the region will continue to be observed. We are obviously disturbed by media reports that India might be considering to conduct additional nuclear tests,’ Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said at his weekly briefing on Thursday.
Mr Basit said: ‘We are against an arms race in South Asia and accordingly we have proposed a restraint regime in the region, which among other things also includes a regional nuclear test ban treaty. Our proposal is still on the table.’
The fears that India may be heading towards yet another nuclear test started after leading nuclear scientist K. Santhanam, who also remained associated with RAW, claimed this week that the 1998 Pokhran thermonuclear explosions were not fully successful and further testing was required to validate the yield.
Observers took the revelation as an attempt to build the case for more tests. The statement by Foreign Office, diplomatic circles here believe, does not address only India, but also attempts to caution Washington about aggressive designs of India with which it has a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement.
The spokesman rejected Indian army chief Gen Deepak Kapoor’s claim that Pakistan was exceeding the degree of deterrence by advancing nuclear technology and strengthening its arsenal.
‘Our policy is to maintain credible deterrence at the minimum possible level.’ However, Mr Basit refused to say what constituted Pakistan’s deterrence threshold. The contours of deterrence, he said, could not be discussed in public.
INDIAN DOSSIER
Mr Basit described the latest dossier given by India to Pakistan on the Mumbai terror attacks as a ‘rehash’ of information provided earlier.
This implied rejection of the dossier which largely dealt with Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed’s alleged role in terrorism.
The dossier which, according to India, contains ‘cogent and credible evidence’ relies largely on statements given by the three detained Mumbai attack accused — Kasab, Sabahuddin and Fahim Nasari, accusing Hafiz Saeed of having supervised the training of terrorists and motivating them through his sermons for attacks against India.
Mr Basit stressed that the trial of those arrested in Pakistan in connection with the Mumbai attacks was progressing and the government was committed to bringing the perpetrators to book.
He regretted Indian unwillingness to resume dialogue with Pakistan on the pretext that there was little progress in the prosecution of Mumbai accused and the will to arrest and interrogate Hafiz Saeed was lacking.
The spokesman said: ‘We can get into public rhetoric |or polemics but at the end of the day, whether we like it or not, we have to come to the negotiating table and, from our viewpoint, sooner the better.’
