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Clinton happy with Indian stand on CTBT

US President Bill Clinton has expressed appreciation for India's commitment to adhere to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty by next September and he believes that it is a ''very important step'' on which to build relations between the two countries.

White House spokesman Joe Lockhert, giving details of Clinton's 10-minute-long telephone call to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee yesterday, said the president also, without going into a great deal, discussed the four areas of non-proliferation concern. The four areas have become the foundation of the discussions between the United States and India, and the United States and Pakistan, he added.

Lockheart did not spell out the four areas but said ''one of the major points of discussion will continue to be the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons''.

He said the main reason for the US president to call was to express his hopes for the talks between External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott currently going on in New Delhi.

Clinton expressed his belief that ''as the two largest democracies in the world, we (India and US) should have a strong and productive relationship.''

He expressed some disappointment that the relationship has not blossomed as he had hoped and that ''his goal remains to work through differences and move the relationship forward.''

In that regard, Talbott and his team are hopeful that progress can be made on the non-proliferation dialogue.

''I think regardless of any presidential travels, CTBT is important to our relations with the subcontinent, to our relationship with both countries (India and Pakistan),'' the spokesman said in reply to a question about Clinton's desire to visit the region.

Clinton had talks with Vajpayee on Friday night and the two leaders reviewed the progress and movement in Indo-US relations.

The initiative for the telephone call was taken by the White House, official sources said.

This is the first time the two leaders have spoken to each other since March 1998 when Clinton had telephoned Vajpayee on his assumption of office.

UNI

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