N-Summit to promote Pak-India CBMs: US

Says it will encourage dialogue between both countries

WASHINGTON: The Nuclear Security Summit also serves as an opportunity to encourage both Pakistan and India to sit and work on Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) that reduce the risk of escalation of any conflict and the US would encourage a dialogue between Pakistan and India, a senior Obama administration official said here on Friday.

“We have always encouraged both the countries to take stabilising measures that reduce the rush of escalation of any conflict, and that’s in addition to encouraging both of them to do the kind of CBMs that reduce the risk of a conflict beginning. We will continue to do that,” said Assistant Secretary, Bureau of International Security and Non-proliferation, Thomas Countryman.

Talking to ‘The News’, he said the US was impressed by the steps that Pakistan and India took to secure nuclear materials and nuclear weapons since the beginning of the summit process. “I know the government of Pakistan takes this issue seriously, and we have a good constructive dialogue,” Countryman said.

The fourth and final Nuclear Security Summit kicked off here on Friday. The Summit has focused on reducing the threat perception and taking necessary and voluntary measures to secure nuclear material. Commenting on the aims and objectives, the assistant secretary said every country could take stronger measures and that’s what “we discussed in a very cooperative way with Pakistan, with India, with many other partners around the world.”

The United States has shown concern over the battlefield weapons, though not just for Pakistan but anywhere in the world. Pakistan has argued that its tactical weapons are for credible and minimum deterrence against any threat from India, underlining complete safety and security of the technology.

In this background, the assistant secretary said, “It’s based on our own experience from the Cold War that certain categories of weapons are not good for deterrence that in fact the existence of tactical nuclear weapons leads to a temptation to use them earlier in a conflict, leads to an escalation of the conflict." He said hat the question was so far was hypothetical but cited that the US and Soviet Union came closer to nuclear war because "of the choices of the kinds of weapons we made."

Countryman insisted, "that’s the dialogue we want to have with Pakistan, and with India." He said that Pakistan and India had an issue that was not unique in the world. "The presence of terrorist groups and the presence of nuclear material and even nuclear weapons in the same region, but at the same time the steps taken by both the counties were impressive.

He added that the US was not to judge whether the two governments [Pakistan and India] had been cooperative. "It’s our job to continue to encourage them to engage with each other," he said.