Thursday, June 4, 1998
Level playing field for Asian N-games unlikely in Geneva
Top negotiators from China, United Kingdom, Russia, France and the United States have begun meetings in Geneva in a bid to weigh their responses to the nuclear tests in India and Pakistan and coax both countries to sit across the table and talk arms control and border disputes. The negotiators who include China's top disarmament specialist Sha Zukang, Russia's Grigori Berdennikov and Britain's Roland Smith are slated to try and frame a mixture of incentives and deterrants in an effort to press New Delhi and Islamabad into confidence-building negotiations.
Jiang Zemin blames India for nuclear imbroglio
On the eve of a crucial meeting of the foreign ministers of the five Security Council permanent members in Geneva, China sought to turn up the heat against India, saying it was the ``target'' of New Delhi's nuclear tests. But in the Capital, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee led the exercise in calming passions worldwide, pointing out to China that it only wanted a ``mutually responsive'' relationship.
A Gandhian plea by Clinton
President Clinton went "Gandhian" momentarily to again condemn the nuclear tests by India and Pakistan and said the developments in the region will "make their people poorer and less secure." Describing the manufacture of nuclear weapons as "self-defeating, wasteful and dangerous", Clinton said the nuclear tests ran "contrary to the ideals of non-violent democratic freedom and independence at the heart of Gandhi's struggle to end colonialism on the Indian subcontinent."
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