Washington: Three years before Pokhran II
nuclear tests, India was interested in negotiations with
Pakistan on elimination of atomic weapons from the
subcontinent and was receptive to US mediation in this regard,
an influential American Senator claimed on Friday.
Senator Arlen Spector has claimed that the then Prime
Minister Narasimha Rao was interested in working out such a
deal with Pakistan. The Senator said this in a letter written
to the then US President Bill Clinton on August 28, 1995.
Excerpts of this letter were released to the media
today, which was also read out by him on the floor of the US
Senate.
Spector wrote to Clinton from Damascus on his way back
from his trip to New Delhi and Islamabad during which he met
Narasimha Rao and late Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir
Bhutto.
Spector claimed that both Rao and Bhutto were
receptive to the idea of US mediation in this regard.
"From our conversations with Prime Minister Rao and
Prime Minister Bhutto, it is my sense that both would be very
receptive to discussions initiated and brokered by the United
States as to nuclear weapons and also delivery missile
systems," Spector said reading out from the letter.
Bringing to the notice of Clinton, the discussions he
had with the two South Asian leaders, Spector wrote: "Prime
Minister Rao stated that he would be very interested in
negotiations which would lead to the elimination of any
nuclear weapons on the subcontinent within 10 or 15 years,
including renouncing first use of such weapons."
Spector wrote: "His interest in such negotiations with
Pakistan would cover bilateral talks, a regional conference
which would include the United States, China, and Russia, in
addition to India and Pakistan."
Referring to his meeting with Bhutto, Spector wrote:
"When we asked Prime Minister Bhutto when she had last talked
to Prime Minister Rao, she said she had had no conversations
with him during her tenure as prime minister."
Spector said: "Prime Minister Bhutto did say that she
had initiated a contact through an intermediary but that was
terminated when a new controversy arose between Pakistan and
India." The Senator said he visited India and Pakistan in 1995
as the chairman of the Intelligence Committee. Senator Hank
Brown of Colorado accompanied him during the trip.
"When we were in India, we met with Prime Minister
Rao, who brought up the subject of a potential nuclear
confrontation between India and Pakistan and said he would
like to see the subcontinent nuclear free. He knew we were en
route to Pakistan to see Prime Minister Bhutto and he asked us
to take up the subject with her, which we did," Spector said.
Bureau Report
