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India, Pakistan Trade Barbs Over Nukes
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has denied reports that Pakistan
shared its nuclear technology with other countries, namely North
Korea. “All our [nuclear] assets are under strict control,”
Musharraf asserted Sept. 25 at a gathering in Ottawa organized by
the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies. “I can guarantee
they will not fall in the wrong hands.”
The Pakistani president rejected charges that “lower ranks”
of the country’s military could be passing nuclear information
to other countries or possible terrorists. He admitted having had
“defense relations with North Korea” but said those were
limited to surface-to-air missiles with conventional warheads. The
U.S. government has been unable to prove reports that Pakistan’s
Dr. A. Q. Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) engaged in a nuclear-for-missile
swap with North Korea. (See
ACT, September 2003.)
Earlier in the day, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee raised
the allegations against Pakistan before the UN General Assembly
in New York. He said member states should be “particularly
concerned at the various recent revelations about clandestine transfers
of weapons of mass destruction and their technologies. We face the
frightening prospect of these weapons and technologies falling into
the hands of terrorists.” The prime minister went on to criticize
international conventions such as the nuclear
NonProliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Comprehensive
Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) for their inability to reign in such
exchanges. “Surely,” he argued, “something needs
to be done about the helplessness of international regimes in preventing
such transactions, which clearly threaten international security.”
“The same regimes expend considerable energy in imposing a
variety of discriminatory technology-denial restrictions on responsible
states,” the prime minister said.
India and Pakistan have refused to join the NPT or the CTBT, both
of which would open up their nuclear arsenals to greater scrutiny.
The two countries shocked the world in May 1998 when they detonated
a series of nuclear devices weeks apart from each other.
In an address to the General Assembly Sept. 25, Musharraf attacked
India for embarking on a “massive buildup” of its conventional
and nonconventional military capabilities and warned countries who
“oppose the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction”
to review their decisions to offer major strategic systems to India.
India is seeking Washington’s blessing to buy the U.S.-Israeli
Arrow anti-ballistic missile system from Israel. In August, the
U.S. government gave Israel the green light to sell three Phalcon
airborne early-warning radar command and control systems to India
for an estimated $1 billion.
The Pakistani president warned that “sustainable security in
South Asia requires India and Pakistan to institute measures to
ensure mutual nuclear restraint and a conventional arms balance.”
India’s interest in purchasing new weapons systems, he said,
“will destabilize South Asia and erode strategic deterrence.”
President George W. Bush met with Musharraf Sept. 24 and had lunch
with Vajpayee. According to the Department of State, the president
discussed cross-border terrorism in Kashmir and support for the
war on terror with both of the leaders. Musharraf said he raised
concerns over India nuclear weapons purchases during his meeting
with Bush.
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India Consolidates Its Nuclear
Force
The Political Council of India’s Nuclear Command Authority
met Sept. 1 for the first time since it was established in
January (See
ACT, January/February 2003). The council, headed
by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and set up to formulate
political principles and administrative arrangements to manage
India’s nuclear arsenal, took action to transfer ballistic
missiles and nuclear weapons from India’s military services
to the Strategic Forces Command now in charge of the country’s
nuclear arsenal. “These decisions will consolidate India’s
nuclear deterrence,” a statement issued after the meeting
said.
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