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Clinton-Yeltsin talks on India's CTBT position

C K Arora in Washington

United States President Bill Clinton has held discussions with Russian counterpart Boris Yeltsin in a bid to figure out ways and means to impress upon India the need to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

White House spokesman Mike McCurry said Clinton spoke to Yeltsin on the phone, on Thursday, as part of his efforts to mobilise international support for moves aimed at defusing tensions in the Indian sub-continent.

The conversation lasted 15 minutes, and centered on the situation in India and Pakistan and ways to dissuade Islamabad from going in for its own nuclear tests.

''They discussed ways in which we might continue to impress upon the government of Pakistan the importance of not testing (a nuclear device), and continue to deal with ways in which we might encourage the government of India to think very seriously about its international obligations and the utility of the CTBT as a way of dealing with the development of a future course of action,'' he added.

''The president continues to be directly engaged in conversations that will help build international support for limiting tensions on the Indian subcontinent,'' McCurry added.

Asked whether this was the sole object of Clinton's talks with Yeltsin, the spokesman said the call was intended as a follow up on the meeting the two leaders had in Britain last week, during the G-8 summit in Birmingham.

Asked how the US maintained contact with India given that its ambassador has been recalled to Washington, McCurry said, "Through our embassy in New Delhi, we do have channels of communication available to senior leadership in that government. So, we do have a way to talk to them and we, of course, have the Indian embassy here''.

Ambassador Richard Celeste, who was on an official assignment in the US at the time of India's nuclear test, has been asked to stay on in Washington for "consultations" -- apparently, the move is meant as a protest against New Delhi's action.

McCurry said the US was ''working directly now'' to implement the sanctions that the president had slapped on India immediately after its nuclear test.

He, however, said he did not have current updates on progress in the implementation of the sanctions. "The treasury department could presumably tell more about this issue,'' he added.

Earlier, State Department spokesman James P Rubin said, ''We are thankful that they (Pakistan) have not tested any bombs today (Thursday).

''We continue to work with the Pakistani government and other governments to try to discourage them from testing nuclear weapons,'' he added.

Rubin said the dates for the visit of a proposed Pakistani delegation to Washington had yet not been fixed.

The delegation, comprising two trusted political allies of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief -- namely Pakistani Senate foreign relations committee chairman Akram Zaki and cabinet member Syeda Abida Hussain, who had earlier served as Pakistan's ambassador to Washington -- is slated to hold consultations with the Clinton administration on a possible US guarantee against threat to Pakistan from India's nuclear capability.

''We do understand they will seek to meet with senior state department officials, and we look forward to this further opportunity for consultations with Pakistan about its security concerns following India's nuclear tests,'' Rubin added.

With regard to Pakistan's recent discussions with Chinese leaders, Rubin was uncommunicative. "We have no details on exactly what was discussed there," he said.

But a report in the New York Times, quoting diplomats in Islamabad, said Pakistani Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmed, who led a high- level delegation to Beijing, was hoping to get a guarantee of nuclear protection from China, in the event of an Indian attack.

Such a declaration, some Western diplomats had hoped, would help persuade Pakistan not to carry out a nuclear test of its own.

What Ahmed brought back however was far less: on returning to Islamabad, he announced that China would not impose economic sanctions should Pakistan conduct a nuclear test. But China has made no public promises of nuclear protection, the daily adds.

Rubin, however, stated that he could say on the basis of the telephone talks that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had with her Chinese counterpart and the subsequent exchange of letters between them, that China shared the US concerns about the situation in South Asia.

Meanwhile, India's ambassador to the US Naresh Chandra called on Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Pickering on Thursday to apprise him of the thinking of his government after the nuclear tests.

UNI

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