Sanctions have slowed economic revival: Sattar

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, JUNE 19. The Pakistan Foreign Minister, Mr. Abdul Sattar, today said the continuation of sanctions against his country by the United States would risk the erosion of conventional capability leading to an increase in reliance on strategic deterrence.

Mr. Sattar, here for talks with members of the Bush administration, was speaking at a nonproliferation conference organised by the Carnegie Endowment. He also spoke on Islamabad's nuclear programme, rationale and thinking as well as the issue of sanctions and the coming summit meeting between the leaders of India and Pakistan.

``For nearly two years India kept Pakistan at arms length; didn't even want to talk to us. And now a meeting is due to take place sometime next month and we hope this meeting will... chart new directions for relations between the two countries and address in the first instance, the root cause of the tensions that have prevailed between Pakistan and India for the last 54 years,'' he said.

He was not fully optimistic that New Delhi and Islamabad would be able to hammer out restraints and confidence- building measures with respect to strategic weapons systems by next month and that the emphasis during the meeting between the Prime Minister, Mr. A. B. Vajpayee, and Gen Pervez Musharraf ``is going to be between the root cause of the tensions''. Mr. Sattar hoped the two leaders would address the core issue of Kashmir ``and embark upon some salutary mechanism for dealing with this issue''.

He was quite blunt in evaluating the punitive measures imposed by the U.S., not just the post-1998 Glenn Amendment sanctions. ``The U.S. has no legal obligation to continue to provide economic assistance or sell military equipment to Pakistan. But friends have a right to at least to expect non- discrimination.''

``The sanctions deny Pakistan not merely economic assistance and military sales but even spare parts of equipment we purchased, ignoring the implicit warranty in past sales. It is not necessary in this forum to mention the risks inherent in erosion of conventional capability and consequent increase in reliance on strategic deterrence,'' he said.

Sanctions are ``paradoxical'' in another significant way, Mr. Sattar continued. ``Denial of economic cooperation retards our efforts to relieve poverty which breeds hopelessness and desperation and fosters extremism that needs to be opposed. Also the sanctions have only slowed down the pace of our economic revival and prolonged poverty and hardship which give rise to a host of undesirable trends including extremism.''

Mr. Sattar may have stayed away from the ``I'' in his keynote address but there were ample references. Pointing out that Pakistan's pursuit of nuclear capability was driven by security compulsions, he said, ``our sole purpose then as now is the defence of our state and prevention of aggression and war. Pakistan harbours no animus or illwill against any country. We do not nourish any design of domination nor hanker after great power status.''

Mr. Sattar also shot down India's ``no-first use'' concept saying it was a recipe for war as the emphasis was on the option for the first use of conventional weapons. ``Unfortunately, conventional imbalance has been exploited in South Asia on more than one occasion in the past. The whole purpose of Pakistan's decision to acquire nuclear capability has been to deter aggression by a more powerful state. To declare that capability will never be used is to invite exploitation of conventional disparity. A state that declares it will not make first use of nuclear weapons implies it reserves the option to make first use of conventional weapons. That is a recipe for war.''

U.S. backs summit

On Monday, Mr. Sattar had an hour-long discussion with the National Security Adviser, Dr. Condoleeza Rice, at the National Security Council.

``They discussed bilateral matters, in particular the removal of sanctions. The Foreign Minister apprised her about the policies and priorities of the Government, in particular, economic revival, institutional reforms and good governance,'' a press note of the Pakistan Embassy said.

Mr. Sattar and Dr. Rice also discussed regional issues including the coming summit meeting between the leaders of India and Pakistan.

Mr. Torkel Patterson, Senior Director for Asia, and Mr. Zalmay Khalilzad, Senior Director for the Gulf and Southwest Asia of the National Security Council, were present at the meeting which discussed, among other things, U.S. concerns on terrorism, Afghanistan and the ruling Taliban there.

The hope that the President, Mr. George W. Bush, would ``drop by'' during the meeting proved false. The expectation was in the context of Mr. Bush ``dropping by'' during the meeting between Dr. Rice and the Minister for External Affairs and Defence, Mr. Jaswant Singh, last month.

Before Mr. Sattar's talks with Dr. Rice, the White House spokesman, Mr. Ari Fleischer, said restoring fully normal relations with Pakistan required that democratic element. ``The administration is committed to building a mutually beneficial bilateral relationship with Pakistan. The administration is looking forward to a return to democracy that will permit fully normalised relations,'' he said adding the U.S. ``fully supports'' the coming meeting between India and Pakistan.

Later today, Mr. Sattar and his delegation are scheduled to meet the Secretary of State, Gen. Colin Powell, and other senior officials at the State Department. A working lunch will follow. As at the National Security Council, far-ranging issues, including those of the subcontinent, nuclear and missile programmes and the coming summit between India and Pakistan, are likely to be discussed.

A key topic will be Afghanistan - Taliban, terrorism and Osama bin Laden. Officials and experts of the two sides are expected to discuss this subject over the next two days. Washington is seriously concerned at the total anarchy and chaos in Afghanistan. The concern on the humanitarian aspect apart, it is felt that Pakistan has not done enough to rein in the Taliban.

While Pakistan may have been at the short end in the last two years or so, the U.S. has clearly said pursuing intensified relations with India was not going to be at Islamabad's expense. The administration has emphasised that it is for ``our Pakistani friends to try and develop a relationship about Pakistan''.

In an interview to The Hindu last Friday, the Deputy Secretary of State, Mr. Richard Armitage, said, ``for years we had an unbalanced policy in South Asia and people would look at it superficially and say we had a great relationship with Pakistan, but it was in a way a false relationship because in the first instance it was built against the India-Soviet Union axis and latterly, it was against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. So we didn't have a policy for Pakistan, we had a policy with Pakistan directed against something else; what we are desirous of is for our Pakistani friends to try and develop a relationship about Pakistan...''

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