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Pak official discusses Indian blasts with China

Pakistan Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmad discussed India's nuclear tests with Chinese officials today, a Pakistani embassy official said.

Ahmad arrived in Beijing on Sunday for "regular consultations with our old friend China,'' said embassy spokesman Rafique Dahar.

Ahmad is to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan and other officials before leaving China tomorrow, Dahar said.

China's foreign ministry said Ahmad and Chinese officials would discuss regional security matters, among other issues.

India's five nuclear tests followed by a declaration that it was now capable of making nuclear weapons has given new impetus to the alliance between Pakistan and China.

China has been suspected of aiding clandestine Pakistani nuclear and missile programmes, charges Beijing has consistently denied.

Meanwhile, opinion is divided over whether Pakistan did attempt, and fail, to explode a nuclear device on Sunday.

The question arose after German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto told the media at the G-8 summit in Birmingham over the weekend that Pakistan had conducted a nuclear test on Sunday. The only one in the G-8 to come to Pakistan's defence was the US which ruled out the possibility, even as Pakistani officials have brushed aside the whole matter as being motivated by India.

But analysts in New Delhi wonder why the German chancellor and the Japanese prime minister should believe what the Indians have to say. "The Pak nuclear test was a dud. The whole thing went awry. Now it is back to the drawing board for them. It should be a case of the initial trigger going off without an explosion. The initial trigger went off, with an initial tremor and there was regular seismic reading," Bharati Karnad, fellow at the Centre for Policy Research told Rediff On The Net.

The seismic reading might have led the Japanese and the Germans to conclude that Pakistan had indeed conducted a nuclear test.

Commodore Uday Bhaskar, deputy director, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses who draws a line between a nuclear programme and a nuclear warhead, does not subscribe to the view that Pakistan failed in its attempt to explode a nuclear device. He feels that the probability of India's neighbour having conducted a test is very less.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Pakistan does not conduct a test. There is no doubt that Pakistan has nuclear capability. They might have a nuclear weapon ready. But that is quite different from testing a nuclear device. For testing you need a different set of determinants and a different sort of configuration," he said.

The reason which holds good even for the earlier argument that Pakistan failed in its first attempt and the 'Pak may not do so' view is that the Pak nuclear programme is sponsored by the Chinese.

Noted defence analyst Brahm Chellany too said that "it could be that Pakistan tried and failed." But he hastens to add that it is difficult to come to any conclusion without any evidence to prove that the test actually took place.

Rajesh Ramachandran with UNI

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