ISLAMABAD, Dec 27, Reuter: Pakistan on Tuesday called on a seven-member group of South Aslannations to reduce conventional arms and ease tensions in the region.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Sahabzada Yaqub Khan said I am Proving superpower relations and arms control agreements had led to an improved international climate. ;
“However, our region cannot wait upon the superpowers to disarm before we commence the process among ourselves,” he told a Foreign Ministers’ meeting of the South Asian Association for regional cooperation (SAARC),
The Association groups Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. “We must move now to remove Mistrust and’ suspicions,” Yaqub Khan said.
“We need to take bold initiatives, not only to keep our countries and our region free of the scourge of nuclear weapons, but also to work towards mutually agreed reductions in conventional arms.”
Yaqub Khan was making his first speech as Chairman of the SAARC Foreign Minister’s council meeting to prepare for a heads of government summit starting on Thursday.
Members of the three-year-old organization are home to a fifth of the world’s population, including some of the poorest, while the region faces substantial security problems.
India has fought three wars with Pakistan in 40 years and internally faces a major Sikh separatist insurgency. Sri Lanka faces a Tamil Separatist rebellion and a leftwing insurgency.
Pakistan, with frequent ethnic clashes internally, is a major supporter of Moslem guerrillas fighting the Soviet-backed government in Afghanistan, on the fringes of the region.
The scheduled meeting between Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and India’s Rajiv Gandhi has raised hopes that tensions between the two countries will begin to wane.
Indian Foreign Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao reflected that hope in a speech applauding elections in Pakistan last month which restored democratic government after 11 years of military rule.
“With the installation of a democratic government in Pakistan, there is an air of renewal and expectancy in this country,” he said.
“This is a very good augury for consolidating stability, peace and progress in our region.”
Rao made no reference to reduced arms spending but appealed for more economic cooperation among SAARC members. He said none did more than a few percent of its trade with regional neighbors.
“Time has come to undertake activities which can directly augment production, expand the exchange of goods and services,” he said.
“We could perhaps consider the possibility of a modest beginning towards cooperation in the field of trade, industry, money and finance,” he added.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 30, 1988
