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US not to cut diplomatic ties with India

C K Arora in Washington

The Clinton administration has ruled out the possibility of the United States breaking its diplomatic ties with India in the wake of its series of nuclear tests.

Sandy Berger, security advisor to the US president, said in a television interview, "We are not going to break our relations with India. It is the largest democracy in the world, and can influence the future of Asia and the world."

Berger, however, went on to characterise India's recent thermonuclear tests as "an act of misguided nationalism, not security."

Berger said that the tests had not come as a total surprise to the US administration. "The BJP has been a pro-nuclear party, its platform talks about nuclear testing, and we have been seriously concerned about this before, and in particular since, the elections in March," Berger pointed out. "I think at least a dozen times, the President, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and myself have exressed to the Indians our concerns about proliferation both on nuclear and missile sides, and pointed out to them that they (such tests) would have serious consequences for our relationship."

Berger indicated that an inquiry had been instituted to find out why the US intelligence agencies had failed to anticipate the Indian tests.

Berger accused the BJP government of practising deception since March. "They had been saying all along, in response to the US pleas for restraint, that they were conducting a defence review. I believe the campaign of deception also took place on the ground, which is why we should be cautious about reaching snap judgments about intelligence," he added.

Asked whether Pakistan would go in for nuclear tests, Berger expressed the hope that Islamabad would take the high road and not let itself be isolated by the world.

He said the US would definitely impose sanctions against Pakistan if it conducted the tests. "There are very serious sanctions, of the nature that we have imposed against India. In the case of India, billions and billions of dollars will be affected; in the case of Pakistan, they will even be more serious because they are more dependendant than India on these kinds of assistance programmes of international financial institutions.

"So the economic cost of testing would be high but the benefit of not testing for Pakistan will be great, both in the US and around the world," he added.

Asked about the possible concessions that the US might give to Pakistan for not conducting the test, he said that the US had for a while now been working to find some way to deal with the supply of 28 F16s against which Pakistan had made payment ten years ago, but could not get delivery because of the Pressler Amendment.

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