03 June 1998
CLINTON, ALBRIGHT URGE RESTRAINT BY INDIA, PAKISTAN
(Ask Senate to ratify CTBT; Clinton to renew China MFN) (680) By Wendy S. Ross USIA White House Correspondent Washington -- President Clinton and Secretary of State Albright have again urged India and Pakistan to stop nuclear testing and work with the international community to resolve their bilateral differences peacefully. They also urged the US Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), and Clinton urged the Congress to support his decision to continue most favored nation trading status for China. Clinton and Albright made these appeals in a June 3 White House Rose Garden event following their meeting to discuss the US agenda for the June 4 meeting in Geneva of the Foreign Ministers of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- the United States, France, United Kingdom, China and Russia. Secretary Albright left Washington for Geneva later that day. Joining the President and the Secretary of State at their White House meeting, and standing with them at their Rose Garden appearance was National Security Advisor Samuel "Sandy" Berger, who had just returned to Washington from his trip to Beijing, where he discussed arrangements for Clinton's scheduled trip there later in the month. Clinton said the United States goal in South Asia "is to forge a common strategy to move India and Pakistan back from their nuclear arms race, and to begin to build a more peaceful, stable, region." The international community "must now come together," he said, "to move them to reverse course and to avoid a dangerous arms race in Asia." About 80 other nations have condemned the tests and want to work with the United States "to move the world to a safer place," he said. He noted that 149 nations have signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty which bans all nuclear explosions, making it more difficult for nuclear powers to produce more advanced weapons and for non-nuclear states to develop them. The President urged the Senate to debate and vote on the CTBT without delay, saying the CTBT will strengthen the ability of the US to detect and deter testing. "If we are calling on others to act responsibly, America must set the example," he said. Clinton also said he will renew most favored nation trading status for China, and he urged Congress to support his decision. Not to renew this tariff treatment, which China has had since 1980 and which normally is granted virtually all US trading partners, "would be to sever our economic and to a large measure our strategic relationship with China, turning our back on a fourth of the world, at a time when our cooperation for world peace and security is especially important in light of the recent events in South Asia," he said. Albright said the nuclear tests by India and Pakistan "pose an immediate threat to international peace and security." She said the five permanent members of the UN Security Council "have a responsibility to forge a coordinated strategy for responding to that threat." She said: "We must do all we can as outside powers to prevent the currently very bad situation from growing worse. Our message to India and Pakistan must be that there should be no further nuclear testing, no deployment or testing of missiles, no more inflammatory rhetoric, and no more provocative military activity." The second, longer-term goal, she said, "is to avert a regional arms race and to reexamine options for easing the underlying political problems between India and Pakistan, including Kashmir. "We will also be urging India and Pakistan to sign the CTBT now, and without conditions; to stop producing fissile material; and to agree on a process for regional arms control. The NPT will not be amended to accommodate either country. We will, however, consider measures to help them maintain peace, and we will stand ready to help them resolve their differences through dialogue. "Finally, we will affirm our resolve to bolster the global nonproliferation regime, and this means taking steps to discourage other countries from following the disastrous example set by India and Pakistan."
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