US will 'react very negatively' if India or Pak deploys missiles

C K Arora in Washington

The Clinton administration has warned that the United States would ''react very negatively,'' if either India or Pakistan resorted to the deployment of ballistic missiles along their borders.

State department spokesman Nicholas Burns made this statement on Tuesday while commenting on a report that India had moved a small number of Prithvi missiles to a prospective launch site near the Pakistani border which he was unable to confirm.

He said he was not even in a position to confirm whether or not India was preparing to deploy its medium-range Prithvi missiles as reported by the Washington Post quoting intelligence agencies.

Asked how the US would react to the preparations for the deployment of ballistic missiles by either country, Burns said, ''We don't favour the deployment of missiles. We think that any preparation to deploy them would be a negative development.''

Moreover, he pointed out, it ran ''completely contrary to the only good news that we have seen in a very long time'' on India's relations with Pakistan which was marked by the meeting last month between their prime ministers -- I K Gujral and Nawaz Sharief. ''They ought to continue in that vein of co-operation,'' he added.

Burns said the missile deployment would be ''fundamentally contrary'' to the recent progress made in India-Pakistan relations.

At the outset, Burns said, ''The United States has believed, for a very long time, that the deployment or acquisition of ballistic missiles by India or Pakistan would be destabilising and that it would undermine the security of both countries.''

''We are working with the governments of India and Pakistan to prevent a deployment of ballistic missiles by either country,'' the spokesman remarked.

According to Tuesday's Washington Post, the US intelligence agencies have concluded that fewer than a dozen of the Prithvi missiles are now located near Jalandhar in Punjab. That would be in the range of Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, or major cities such as Lahore, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi.

Asked if the US had come to a similar conclusion regarding Pakistan, Burns said, ''We have not come to that conclusion.'' He said, ''There have seen repeated press stories and allegations that Pakistan has acquired the M-11 missiles from China. We have been very concerned about those reports.''

He said the US had addressed its concerns both to China and Pakistan. ''But we could not verify whether the deployment had taken place.'' He said the US did not have any confirmation even about the purchase or delivery of the M-11 missiles.

''And, certainly purchase, delivery, deployment -- all of that, we think, would be an extremely negative development. But, we have not made that determination, because that would trigger category I sanctions under the US missiles sanctions law,'' he added.

Asked whether the deployment of M-11 missiles, if it existed, would trigger category I sanctions against both China and Pakistan, he said, ''I would have to check the law. I think it would. I am pretty sure that it would cover the seller, the country that produced the missile and sold it to another country.''

UNI