Posted on 06/25/2002 3:10:15 AM PDT by kattracks
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Jun 25, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- President Gen. Pervez Musharraf praised scientists Monday for building the country's nuclear weapons and bringing the country to parity with rival India, but said the nuclear program was designed only to deter attack.
"Our nuclear and missile potential is defensive in nature and is a deterrence," Musharraf said. Pakistan "has no offensive designs against anybody."
Musharraf's remarks, reported by state-run news agency Associated Press of Pakistan, came as tensions between nuclear-armed neighbors eased after they were on the brink of all-out war.
"This achievement (nuclear weapons) is not by choice but has been through threat and compulsion that Pakistan was facing," Musharraf told a gathering of scientists at International Nathiagali Summer College, about 550 miles Islamabad.
Musharraf's remarks, reported by state-run news agency Associated Press of Pakistan, came as tensions between nuclear-armed neighbors eased after they were on the brink of all-out war.
India has a no-first-use nuclear policy, but Pakistan, which has a much smaller army, never matched that pledge. The lack of balance raised fears that any new war between the hostile neighbors could go nuclear.
Tensions flared after a Dec. 14 attack on the Indian parliament, which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based Islamic militants fighting Indian forces in the Indian-occupied section of Kashmir province. Pakistan denied any role in the attack.
Both countries dispatched hundreds of thousands of troops to their border in the biggest military mobilization in the region since 1971. Tensions eased after intensive U.S. and other international diplomacy and after Musharraf pledged to stop insurgents from crossing into the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir.
In New Delhi, India warned Musharraf against reneging on his commitment to "permanently" end cross-border incursions into the disputed region.
"We want Pakistan to abide by its commitment. There is no going back on this, if we want peace in the region," Indian foreign ministry spokeswoman Nirupama Rao told a news briefing.
The Indian government was responding to Musharraf comments in a Newsweek magazine interview in which he was quoted as saying he could not promise there would never be crossings of the Line of Control that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
"I've told President Bush nothing is happening across the Line of Control. This is the assurance I've given. I'm not going to give you an assurance that for years nothing will happen. We have to have a response from India, a discussion about Kashmir," Newsweek quoted Musharraf as saying.
A U.S. Embassy spokesman in New Delhi said Musharraf had assured Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage on June 6 that "ending of infiltration across the Line of Control would be permanent."
However, Musharraf suggested in Sunday's Washington Post that his promises were less far reaching than those described by the State Department.
On Monday, the State Department stood by previous statements that Musharraf promised to permanently end cross-border infiltrations.
Spokesman Richard Boucher suggested Musharraf already has carried through on his commitments, citing the "significant decline" in infiltrations.
He also said India's conciliatory actions over the past two weeks suggest Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is pleased with Musharraf's actions.
By MUNIR AHMAD Associated Press Writer
Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved
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