The Hindu : France for talks with Pakistan on non-proliferation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 29, 2004

International

International

France for talks with Pakistan on non-proliferation

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, FEB. 28. France today proposed a dialogue with Pakistan on three specific areas relating to nuclear non-proliferation in the wake of the recent scandal involving the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, A.Q. Khan.

The visiting French Foreign Minister, Dominique de Villepin, told a news conference along with his Pakistani counterpart, Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, that the basic objective of the dialogue was to address concerns on proliferation.

Mr. de Villepin said the dialogue could cover strengthening of the export control regime, greater transparency in nuclear-related activities in close co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the involvement of Pakistan in international efforts to curb proliferation.

Mr. Kasuri did not appear enthused by Mr. de Villepin's proposals and merely said that Islamabad would go all out in cooperating with the international community on non-proliferation. He said that proliferation by Dr. Khan was an individual activity and that Pakistan had been jolted by the disclosures. Mr. Kasuri readily endorsed the suggestion made by a journalist that the international community should reconcile itself to the reality of Pakistan being a nuclear state and confer it the status.

He said that the international community would be better served if it reckoned with the reality of India, Pakistan and Israel as nuclear weapon states. Mr. de Villepin was non-committal and said that everyone needed to work together in the goal towards non-proliferation.

The French Foreign Minister's visit, the second in two years, was dominated by the issue of non-proliferation. India-Pakistan relations, the situation in Afghanistan and Iraq and bilateral issues also figured in his meetings with the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, and the country's Prime Minister, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali.

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