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Indian-Pakistani Policies Must Change to Enable Nuclear Risk Reduction, Expert Says By Mike Nartker WASHINGTON — While nuclear risk reduction measures are “urgently needed” in South Asia, they will probably not be achieved until India and Pakistan re-evaluate their policies toward each other, a South Asian expert said yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 25). The two nuclear-armed rivals have negotiated, but not finalized, a number of agreements to implement nuclear risk reduction measures, said Michael Krepon, former president of the Henry L. Stimson Center. Before those agreements can be completed, however, Pakistan must stop viewing the measures as a bargaining chip to be used with India over the disputed Kashmir region, he said. Speaking at the Middle East Institute, Krepon said Pakistan must view nuclear risk reduction measures as “an absolute good instead of a tradable commodity.” Krepon also said that India needed to do more to relaunch a dialogue with its South Asian rival to facilitate the development of nuclear risk reduction measures. “Containment without engagement is like playing cricket with one hand,” he said. In his remarks yesterday, Krepon also addressed the broader issue of the disputed region of Kashmir, which Pakistan has long maintained is the “core dispute” it has with India. During a speech in Washington late last month, Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf outlined an “action plan” to resolve the dispute, which would include a cease-fire on the Line of Control dividing the province, Pakistani aid in facilitating a cease-fire between the Islamic militant groups operating in the Indian side of Kashmir and New Delhi and pledges by India to cease military action in the province. Krepon said yesterday, however, that Pakistan needed to broadly re-evaluate its policies toward Kashmir, based on the understanding that it cannot settle the dispute militarily or by attempting to achieve through negotiation those territorial objectives in the region it has so far been unable to win through force. The successful resolution of the dispute must be based instead on what is best for the Kashmiri people — the reduction of the Indian military presence in the region, which could be accomplished by an end of Pakistani support for cross-border terrorism, Krepon said. While Pakistan has often called on the United States to aid in facilitating a dialogue between Islamabad and New Delhi, Washington would be less successful in pressuring Pakistani officials to re-evaluate their approach on Kashmir, Krepon predicted. “This can’t be externally driven. It has to be internally learned,” he said.
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