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US moots 'five practical steps' to reduce Indo-Pak tension

The United States is stepping up pressure on India and Pakistan to reduce the threat of nuclear conflict, a senior US official told the Far Eastern Economic Review, the magazine has said in a media statement.

"We're under no illusions that either country will alter or constrain their defence programmes under duress or simply because we've asked them to,'' Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott said in the interview.

Instead, Washington is asking India and Pakistan to take "five practical steps'' which he says are fully consistent with their security requirements, the magazine said.

The US is urging the two countries to sign and ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, tighten export controls on sensitive materials and technologies, and hold talks to resolve their long-standing dispute. Washington also wants the countries to halt all production of weapons-grade nuclear material pending the signing of the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty.

It is also asking India and Pakistan to adopt prudent constraints on development and deployment of missiles and aircraft capable of carrying weapons of mass destruction, the statement said.

"Unless both India and Pakistan exercise genuine restraint and great care, the delivery systems themselves could become a source of tension and could, by their nature and disposition, increase the incentive to attack first in a crisis,'' Talbott told the magazine.

Washington officials are quoted by the magazine as privately acknowledging it is unrealistic to demand that India and Pakistan halt their missile tests, but they want to adopt certain measures that could reduce tension and the risk of accident.

UNI

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