Clinton Urges Pakistan To End Nukes

December 2, 1998

Clinton Urges Pakistan To End Nukes

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Filed at 7:46 p.m. EST

By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Clinton told Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday his government must take further steps away from developing nuclear weapons before the United States will lift remaining military sanctions imposed early this decade.
Clinton had signed a one-year waiver Tuesday of economic sanctions he was forced by law to impose on Pakistan and India after the two rival neighbors conducted nuclear weapons tests in May. A ban on American military sales to Pakistan, in place for several years, remains intact.
In remarks to reporters before Wednesday's White House talks and lunch with Sharif, Clinton said he would stress his hope to ``end the nuclear competition in South Asia,'' which he called a threat to global stability.
Afterward, administration aides said it was too early for Clinton to consider a further easing of sanctions.
``The president reaffirmed our view that more progress needed to be made on these issues before we'd be in a position to remove all of the sanctions,'' National Security Council official Bruce Riedel said.
The Clinton administration is pressing Pakistan to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and to move away from further development of a nuclear weapons capability. Karl Inderfurth, the assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs, told reporters Sharif reaffirmed to Clinton that his government intends to adhere to the test ban treaty by September 1999. But he made no new commitments.
Clinton also presented to Sharif a proposal for ending a long-standing dispute over American-made F-16 fighter jets that Pakistan ordered in 1989 but never received. Pakistan is owed $501 million because of the sanctions, and Inderfurth said Clinton presented ideas for ways in which the money could be repaid.
Under the F-16 plan, as described by administration officials, New Zealand would lease, and perhaps eventually buy, 28 of the fighters. Some or all the money would be transferred to Pakistan, which was denied possession of the aircraft after Congress passed a law in 1990 that led to a cutoff of all direct American military sales to Pakistan.
Of the $658 million that Pakistan paid for the F-16s, $157 million was returned, leaving the current $501 million balance, the White House said.
Inderfurth said the New Zealand government has not given Washington details of a final lease arrangement, but the F-16 deal was expected to include ``approximately $105 million.'' He said Sharif made no commitment to accept the Clinton proposal but was expected to study it.
``We are probably closer to finding a just settlement for this than we ever have been,'' Inderfurth said.
In his remarks prior to the meeting, Clinton praised Sharif for resuming direct talks with India on the Kashmir conflict and said he would consider playing a mediating role over the disputed Himalayan region if both nations were to ask him.
``I think this conflict is holding both nations back and diminishing the quality of life of ordinary citizens,'' Clinton said in reference to Kashmir, which India and Pakistan have fought over twice. ``So I would do anything I could to help to resolve it. But the most important thing is that the leaders are discussing it again.''
Clinton said he hopes to visit India and Pakistan next year, after having canceled a visit this year in response to both nations' nuclear weapons tests.
In brief remarks to reporters, Sharif said he hoped his visit to the United States would ``remove all the misperceptions which are there in our bilateral relations.''
Besides the White House meeting with Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and other administration officials, Sharif held separate talks Wednesday with Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.

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