US-Pak talks not as rosy as made out, says Nation

NEW DELHI, July 24: The Strobe Talbott-led delegation told their Pakistani interlocutors, in no uncertain terms, that any linkage between...

NEW DELHI, July 24: The Strobe Talbott-led delegation told their Pakistani interlocutors, in no uncertain terms, that any linkage between the Kashmir issue and Islamabad’s signature to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was unacceptable, says a well-informed editor there.

Contrary to reports, based on the briefing given by the Pakistani foreign office about the substance of the talks, stories coming out from the media there suggest otherwise. In what is regarded by foreign policy analysts here as the most authentic version of all that transpired between the Talbott-led delegation and their Pakistani counterparts, Islamabad is believed to have been told unequivocally that the US cannot play the role of broker and it has no bail-out package for Pakistan.

According to the report of Arif Nizami, editor of the influential Pakistani newspaper, Nation, and available on the Internet, “Shorn of verbosity the high-level Talbott mission in no unambiguous terms has made it amply clear to the Pakistani leadership thatany bail out for Pakistan by the US is inextricably linked to Islamabad signing along on the dotted line of the CTBT. Any linkage between the Kashmir dispute settlement and the CTBT has also been ruled out by the US…” The Nation report goes on to say that the “US delegation termed the May 28 nuclear test as a huge mistake by Pakistan which now could only be rectified by signing the CTBT.”

Story continues below this ad

And unlike their Indian counterparts, there is a clear divergence of opinion “amongst the Pakistani establishment on the question to (sic) sign the CTBT or not. There is a lobby…which feels that signing the CTBT…would result in lifting the sanctions by the US, thus alleviating Pakistan’s present economic woes…However, those who say that Pakistan should not unilaterally sign the CTBT contend that it will seriously jeopardize national security by curtailing Pakistan’s weaponisation programme vis-a-vis India and thus will have a severe backlash of public opinion within the country,” claims the report.

TheTalbott delegation also declared that the US decision to abstain from the IMF programme was a one-off affair and it “does not ensure that the US administration will follow the same policy for future programmes”.

Similarly, the delegation “did not mince its words on Pakistan’s economic performance and slippage on structural reforms…The treatment meted out to the IPP (Independent Power Producers) by the government came under discussion and the US delegation made it abundantly clear the shake-down’ of the IPP was a breach of sanctity of contracts”, says the report. “The West knows where Pakistan’s weak underbelly hurts (sic) and is willing to exploit Islamabad’s dilemma to the hilt”, adds the report. What, however, really got the goat of the US delegation was an ad commissioned by the Pakistani government in the English press during the talks. The quarter page colour advertisement shows the Ghauri missile in the backdrop of the Chagai nuclear test site along with a photograph of Sharif. The captionof the advertisement reads: New Clear vision, marching towards a better tomorrow…”