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'Pakistan escalating tension, not India'

Democratic Congressman Frank Pallone has protested against the US state department's attempts at equating India and Pakistan for their responsibility in arms proliferation and tension in the region, even after Islamabad's test of its new missile on Monday.

''I will continue urging our government to be less indulgent of Pakistan,'' he said in a statement.

He said he was 'disappointed' to see early this week a state department spokesman putting ''equal blame on India and Pakistan, even though it was clearly Pakistan that was escalating tension with this latest act of missile proliferation''.

He joined fellow Congressman Sherrod Brown in urging the administration to put in place a stronger policy to stop the missile development programmes of China and Pakistan.

He said the Pakistani missile test followed the relaxation of restrictions on American companies, providing technical assistance to China's ballistic missile programme.

Pallone, a founder member and co-chairman of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian-Americans, cited reports that Pakistan had sought and received missile-related assistance from China. This issue should be treated by the state department on a much higher priority basis in the context of the missile test.

''The reported test-fire should also raise alarms in the state department about Pakistan's own missile development capability,'' he added.

''Considering that most of the Indian territory would be within Ghauri's striking distance, the new Indian government -- or any Indian government -- has every right to be alarmed by this development,'' he said. ''India has every right to protect itself, considering that it has both Pakistan and China as its neighbours.''

Last week, Pallone recalled, reports surfaced that two American companies might have illegally provided China with expertise that could help that country to further develop its ballistic missile programme.

However, the decision by the Bill Clinton administration to approve the export to China of similar technology by one of the companies under investigation had hampered a criminal investigation of the companies involved, he added.

While the state department tried to downplay the China-Pakistan connection on the Ghauri missile, Pallone said the recent pattern of reckless behaviour by both countries and their history of cooperation on both nuclear and missile development, demonstrated the need for the US to be more wary of both countries's activities.

He said the administration was overlooking China's recent transfers of nuclear technology to unregulated nuclear facilities in Pakistan and Iran.

He faulted the administration for not responding to CIA findings that China had sold 5,000 ring magnets, a component used for making nuclear weapons, to Pakistan for its uranium enrichment facility at Kahuta.

''It has been suggested that the Pakistani strategy behind the test is to draw the US into forcing India to make concessions,'' Pallone said. ''I hope this theory is not true, because it does not deserve any serious consideration.''

He said India should not be blackmailed into making unilateral concessions because of Pakistan's threatening acts.

UNI

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