Monday, April 24, 2006javascript:;
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/print.asp?page=2006\04\24\story_24-4-2006_pg1_7
ââ¬ËUS should recognise Pakistan and Israel as N-weapon statesââ¬â¢
By Khalid Hasan
WASHINGTON: It was suggested here on Sunday that the United States, having implicitly recognised India as a nuclear weapons state, should now give Pakistan and Israel the same recognition by working with all three to map a scenario for progressive global nuclear arms reductions.
Selig Harrison, writing in the Washington Post, while making a strong case for the successful passage through Congress of the India-US nuclear cooperation agreement, suggested that only with such an all-embracing approach will the de jure nuclear powers feel that it is safe to wind down their arsenals, and only when the prospect of meaningful nuclear disarmament becomes credible will would-be nuclear powers reassess their ambitions. He asked why India, with a ââ¬Åspotlessââ¬Â non-proliferation record, should be denied access to US civilian nuclear technology for electricity, while China, which helped Pakistan and Iran in their efforts to acquire nuclear weapons, can have it. He called the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) ââ¬Åinequitableââ¬Â, with built-in discrimination in favour of China and against India that has made it necessary and justifiable for the Bush administration to conclude its civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with New Delhi. He charged that the NPT is based on ââ¬Åa legalistic fiction that underpins this discriminationââ¬Â.
Harrison proposed that India should reaffirm its readiness to cap and wind down its modest nuclear arsenal during the final stage of a process of nuclear arms reductions that would start with US and Russian cuts and would then move on to embrace Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan and Israel. However, he added that the Bush administration is heading in the other direction by seeking to upgrade US nuclear weapons. He suggested that India should join with Japan and with Russia, which cannot afford its nuclear arsenal, to promote a reappraisal of American policy. He dismissed fears that the Bush administrationââ¬â¢s failure to get India to cap its nuclear arsenal may lead to Sino-Indian and Indian-Pakistani nuclear arms races.
ââ¬ÅIndia could deflect this criticism with a nuclear disarmament initiative in which it would no longer be a non-nuclear power on the sidelines, as in 1988, but a de facto nuclear power now recognised as such by the United States. The keystone of this initiative should be the inclusion of all three de facto nuclear powers - India, Pakistan and Israel - along with the five de jure nuclear powers, in a collective approach to progressive nuclear arms reductions. North Korea should also be included when and if it is found to possess nuclear weapons.ââ¬Â
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\04\24\story_24-4-2006_pg1_7
