M B Naqvi

Alarm and dismay have been the general reaction in Pakistan to news of a framework agreement on defence cooperation signed between India and the United States — which, only a year ago, accorded this country the status of “major non-NATO ally”. Many said the agreement signed late June cast a long shadow over a peace process that the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours have been engaged in since January last. Said Mairaj Muhammad Khan, senior politician and former minister of a Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government:

“By this agreement, the US is queering the pitch for both India and Pakistan. The peace process cannot but be affected because the first consequence of this agreement — an intensification of the arms race now underway between India and Pakistan — will enhance mistrust between them.”

The new “Framework for the US-India Defence Relationship” envisages the outsourcing of military functions to India, including joint- operations in third countries, patrolling of sea-lanes and disaster relief operations. Besides, the two countries have also agreed to collaborate on Ballistic Missile Defence and other research and development efforts, and enhance

“capabilities to combat” proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to pay a state-visit to the US starting July 18 when the true contours of the10-year agreement are expected to become clearer. Khan thought that the net effect of the Indo-US agreement would be that “both countries would now have their attention diverted from social sectors and worsen the problem of widespread poverty they both face in order to find ever more resources for

military spending.” “The importance of the Indo-Pakistan peace process, newly endangered, is significant not only for the people of India and Pakistan but also for the region as a whole which has a stake in the normalisation of the situation in South Asia,” the elder statesman said. B M Kutty, Information Secretary to the National Workers Party said he could not see how India’s communist parties would reconcile themselves to the defence arrangement.

Rahat Saeed, the noted commentator and literary figure said he believed that in the long run the Indo-US deal would have a detrimental effect “for hopes of democracy’s return to Pakistan

while not strengthening democracy in India.” Saeed, who is organising a ‘Pen-for-Peace’ conference (of writers from India and Pakistan) conference later this year to discuss the dangers from nuclear weapons said he was particularly worried that anti-missile defence is likely to be a major constituent of the Indo-US agreement. “That would be bad for South Asia as a whole,” he said.

The Pakistan government has merely emphasised that acquisition of more military strength by India will destroy the balance of power between the countries, which, in its view, is bad for peace and progress. But after initial criticism Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khurshid M Kasuri told reporters on July 3 that “there was no need to panic,” and that Pakistan was not about to get into an arms race with India though it would take care to “maintain credible deterrence” to ensure its sovereignty. — IPS