Search the Internet          Tips  Sites: Finance, Investment

India-Pakistan summit could affect US sanctions

US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Tuesday there was much work to be done to build political support for lifting US sanctions on Pakistan but an India-Pakistan summit later this month could have an impact on this process.

In an interview, he acknowledged a debate within the Bush administration over whether sanctions imposed on Pakistan and India after their 1998 nuclear tests could be lifted separately or must be handled together.

A formal decision has not been made but while the United States is "heading in the direction" of lifting sanctions on India, "we've got a lot of work to do on Capitol Hill to develop a consensus to remove some Pakistani sanctions," he said.

Armitage said "there is no timetable" for making a decision despite the fact that some officials have said lifting the sanctions on India could happen soon.

Political spadework on New Delhi's behalf is needed but India, a democracy and rising regional power, has a much broader backing in the US Congress, said Armitage, who recently visited India as part of President George W Bush's campaign to promote missile defense.

Islamabad greatly harmed its own case when Pakistani General Pervez Musharraf, who overthrew a civilian government in a 1999 coup, recently declared himself president, he said.

"So I think the practicality of things is (that) as nice as it would be to lift (sanctions) simultaneously, both actions in Pakistan and the facts on the ground here make that a little more difficult," he said.

During a visit to Washington last month, Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar urged the administration to treat his country equally with India, its South Asian nuclear rival.

No balanced policy,/b>

Armitage dismissed this suggestion, saying "we've never had a balanced policy in South Asia." He called the 50-year-old US relationship with Pakistan "relatively false."

"It's been a relationship that wasn't based on Pakistan. It was based against someone else -- in the first instance India and their relationship with the Soviet Union and later, against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan," he said.

Armitage also pointedly noted that "with India we have a lot going for us" since both are "multi-ethnic, multi-religious societies, democracies and indeed federations."

With Pakistan "we lack that commonality ... With Pakistan we've got a long way to go," he said.

Nevertheless, he insisted one should not conclude that the United States would definitely lift sanctions on India first.

"We don't live in a vacuum ... We are rapidly approaching an interesting summit between India and Pakistan," planned for Agra on July 15, he said.

The hope is that the summit "leads to some sort of process of discussion between India and Pakistan and obviously something like that could have an effect" on the US sanctions debate, he said.

So could visible moves by Musharraf to restore democracy, he added.

The administration is in the midst of a formal review of US policies towards Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan. Armitage said one goal of the US review was to fashion a new more directly "bilateral" relationship with Pakistan.

Pakistan support for Taliban slammed

Washington has criticized Islamabad for backing the Taliban, a Muslim fundamentalist group that rules much of Afghanistan with a repressive hand.

A UN report last May faulted Pakistan for not sufficiently enforcing UN sanctions on the Taliban.

There seems to be a "more robust discussion" in Pakistan about the advisability of being as closely associated with a group that is "rapidly becoming a pariah," Armitage said.

While this is a healthy sign, it is hard to predict what might come of it, he added.

The nuclear test-related sanctions imposed on India and Pakistan as a result of their May 1998 nuclear tests included bans on foreign assistance, munitions sales and licenses; government credits and financial assistance; and US support for multilateral financial assistance.

After Congress gave him authority, then President Bill Clinton in 1999 waived sanctions on India pertaining to a broad range of US government programs and commercial transactions. Sanctions on Pakistan were also waived, but they were limited to purchasing food or other agricultural commodities.

Pakistan is also subject to other groups of sanctions, including some relating to the 1999 coup. Both countries want all sanctions permanently removed.