Tracking Number: 386851
Title: "Clinton Hopes Mediation Will Ease India-Pakistan Tensions." President Clinton believes US mediation of Pakistan's dispute with India over Kashmir could ease
nuclear-related tensions between the two nations. (950411)
Translated Title: Cinco potencias garantizan ayuda en caso de ataque nuclear. (950411)
Author: SULLIVAN, ALEXANDER M (USIA STAFF WRITER)
Date: 19950411
Text:
CLINTON HOPES MEDIATION WILL EASE INDIA-PAKISTAN TENSIONS
(Calls impact of Pressler amendment unfair) (930)
By Alexander M. Sullivan
USIA White House Correspondent
Washington -- President Clinton believes his offer to mediate Pakistan's
dispute with India over Kashmir, if accepted, could begin to ease the
subcontinent's nuclear-related tensions.
At the same time, the president denounced as unfair the impact of the Pressler amendment, which has prevented Pakistan from taking delivery of 28 F-16 aircraft, or getting back the money it paid for them. The amendment was aimed at preventing Pakistan from becoming a nuclear weapons state.
At a news conference at the White House April 11, Clinton told his guest, Pakistan's Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, that he will begin consultations with Congress on ways to improve relations with Pakistan in political and economic spheres, while suggesting resolution of the F-16 impasse will occur in the general context of his administration's drive to quell the proliferation of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.
Bhutto said she was "encouraged" by the president's promise to work with Congress on easing the Pressler amendment, and accepted his mediation offer. The $1,000 million in F-16 aircraft and other equipment was paid for by Islamabad but sequestered because of the amendment.
Clinton underlined the nexus of nuclear and territorial disputes on the subcontinent, pointing out that "if the issue of Kashmir were resolved, a lot of these other issues...would resolve themselves. At least, I believe that to be the case. So we want to do whatever the United States can do to help resolve these matters because so much else depends on it."
He said "it will be interesting to see" the parameters of the elections in Kashmir suggested by India, to see "who is eligible to vote, what the conditions of the elections are, whether it really is a free referendum of the people's will there."
Outlining the U.S. position that the former state of Jammu and Kashmir is disputed territory, Clinton said the United States "will do what we can to help these two important nations work together to resolve the dispute in Kashmir." Bhutto said Pakistan would accept Clinton's offer and suggested the issue of Indian concurrence will be raised in New Delhi next week. Clinton acknowledged that Washington "can only mediate if those who are being mediated want it."
Clinton said the subcontinent should become a region free of "all proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," and he pointed out the original intent of the Pressler amendment was to pressure Pakistan into shunning import of nuclear technology.
The president insisted the administration "will not shirk from" its responsibility to lead the world in battling proliferation, but he said the goal should be pursued "in a way that is likely to achieve the desired results." He said he is "convinced we're going to have to have a regional solution" bringing India into the equation, adding, "we are working on that."
Clinton noted Pakistan's friendly relations with the United States date to that country's independence, and he asserted that Islamabad had "just extradited a suspected terrorist in the World Trade Center bombing (in New York City and)...has taken dramatic moves in improving its efforts against terrorism, against narcotics." He said Pakistan has cooperated in recent United Nations peacekeeping missions in Somalia and Haiti.
Bhutto again denied that Pakistan has nuclear weapons, but in 1990 former President Bush implemented the Pressler amendment's ban on military assistance to Pakistan when he said he could not certify that Islamabad lacked such devices.
Bhutto, while asserting Pakistan has the knowledge and resources to build a nuclear device, declared that her nation has not done so, as an act of restraint and as an indication of its desire to extend the nuclear non-proliferation regime to the area. "We have voluntarily chosen not to" build a nuclear device, she said, or to export nuclear technology.
Clinton told a questioner he will ask Congress "to show some flexibility in the Pressler amendment so we can have some economic and military cooperation" with Islamabad. He said he also intends "to consult with them about what we ought to do about the airplane sale." Citing his efforts to curb proliferation, he said the situation he found on taking office "requires some modification....I don't think it's right for us to keep the money and the equipment. That is not right. And I'm going to try to find a resolution to it. I don't like this."
Robin Raphel, assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs, told reporters there has been some interest in Congress in reassessing the amendment, but she asserted that "at first blush...people will say this doesn't seem fair, but when they look at the totality of the situation I think there's an appreciation that it's a very complex issue."
She said the overall issue is "how to move forward in our relationship with Pakistan in the context of our regional and global non-proliferation responsibilities." Raphel added that "however this matter is resolved, it will have to be in the context of our non-proliferation policy."
Ellen Laipson of the National Security Council staff predicted Clinton's first effort with Congress will be to seek "flexibility in areas other than the airplanes," including cooperation in economics and anti-terrorism. She said Clinton is not committed in advance to a specific list of goals but is "very conscious of the range of opinion in Congress and wants to work with what is achievable."
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