04 June 1998
PERM-5 URGE INDIA, PAKISTAN TO ADHERE TO CTBT AND NOT TEST AGAIN
(P-5 issue seven-point communique June 4) (760) Geneva -- The Foreign Ministers of the five permanent members (P-5) of the U.N. Security Council met June 4 in Geneva to forge a unified strategy in response to nuclear tests conducted by India and then Pakistan in May. In a joint communique, the United States, Great Britain, France, the Russian Federation, and China condemned the tests and called on India and Pakistan to engage in direct dialogue with one another and to refrain from further testing. They also called on India and Pakistan to halt any further production of fissile material for nuclear weapons and to adhere "immediately and unconditionally" to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said the world's five nuclear powers had an "obligation to respond to what is clearly a threat to international peace and security. "As the NPT [Non-Proliferation Treaty] nuclear weapons states, we have a responsibility to protect the non-proliferation regime," Albright told a late-night press conference following the meeting. "The whole world is asking India and Pakistan to stop, listen, and think. Don't rush to embrace what the rest of the planet is racing to leave behind. Don't assume you are the only countries on earth that are immune to miscalculation. There is no point worth making, no message worth sending, no interest worth securing that can possibly justify the risk." The first purpose of the Geneva meeting, Albright said, was to call on India and Pakistan to take steps to avoid an arms race and ease the tensions between them. The second part of the message was that "we're prepared to help India and Pakistan maintain peace if they are prepared to do the right thing." The P-5 meeting at the United Nations in Geneva brought together Secretary Albright, China's Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan, British Secretary of State Robin Cook, French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine, and Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeni Primakov. The meeting took place in the Council Chamber, the room where the CTBT, which India and Pakistan are being urged to sign, was negotiated between 1994 and 1996. In their seven-point communique, the ministers pledge to "cooperate closely in urgent efforts to prevent a nuclear and missile arms race in the Subcontinent, to bolster the non-proliferation regime, and to encourage reconciliation and peaceful resolution of differences between India and Pakistan." The five also called on India and Pakistan to participate in negotiations on a Fissile Material Cut-off Convention within the Conference on Disarmament (CD). The communique makes plain that the five nuclear powers do not accept the claim by India, and to some extent by Pakistan, that they are now so-called "nuclear-weapons states." It says: "Notwithstanding their recent nuclear tests, India and Pakistan do not have the status of nuclear weapons states in accordance with the NPT." Speaking prior to the P-5 meeting, a senior U.S. official said the development of a nuclear weapons system can be broken down into four phases: research, development, testing, and deployment. The key objective of the United States and the four other nuclear powers, he said, is to stop India and Pakistan's programs between testing and deployment. If the warheads are not deployed, they don't "pose the risk of very quick use of force that poses the danger of miscalculation," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The P-5 communique also makes reference to Kashmir. The official noted that this is the first time that the Permanent Five have discussed Kashmir at such a high level. Experts worked through the night on the document in Geneva, and Secretary Albright went over the details in bilateral meetings with her counterparts from Russia and China before the P-5 meeting. The official noted that China was "fully in sync" with the United States on the steps that needed to be taken. China chaired the June 4 meeting, acting in its capacity as the current coordinator of the Security Council. The official said the United States and China both "reject the excuse proffered by India that there was a changed security situation vis-a-vis China recently, as a justification for their nuclear tests." Albright said the P-5 group intends to remain "seized with the issue" and to work together on next steps. "We have no illusions that we will succeed overnight, but a process has begun and we're determined to see it through," she said.
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