Britain, India and Pakistan could start a disarmament club by Ramesh Thakur , Ralph A Cossa

Not a single country that had nuclear weapons when the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty was signed in 1968 has given them up. The whiff of hypocrisy in statements from those who have nuclear weapons robs their condemnation of much value in shaping the nuclear choices of India and Pakistan . A dramatic gesture by either of these states toward genuine nuclear disarmament might be able to reverse the nuclearization trend before India and Pakistan come to blows.

The British government could usefully make a unilateral, but conditional, declaration of nuclear disarmament. Prime Minister Tony Blair could announce that Britain was prepared to give up its nuclear weapons, but only if India and Pakistan renounced the nuclear option and signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty as non-nuclear states. This is different from unilateral disarmament, which the Labour Party abandoned.

India

has long campaigned for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and has justified its nuclear program by pointing to the total coincidence of nuclear weapons status with permanent membership of the Security Council. Ironically,

India

has itself broken the link.

Britain

could complete the break by becoming non-nuclear. There would then be a permanent member of the Security Council that did not have nuclear weapons.

Britain

's moral authority in the world would be greatly increased.

A conditional unilateral offer is a no-lose situation for

Britain

. But the offer just might be taken up. In the sobering post-test awakening,

India

and

Pakistan

might be more receptive to a face-saving formula that permits respectable retreat.

An extract from International Herald Tribune Paris , July 11, 1998


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