India’s Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, who last month had unexpectedly successful talks with her Pakistani counterpart, said on Sunday that Islamabad’s view on militancy had “definitely been altered.” She noted that Pakistan now spoke of the need to tackle non-state actors and safe havens and sanctuaries for militants.
“I think that is a concrete development,” she said. “I am not trying to sound over optimistic about this,” Rao said. “I think we have to be realistic. We have to understand the difficulties in the terrain.” The Indian diplomat also admitted that her country had committed a mistake by not negotiating with Pakistan after the Mumbai attacks.
NUCLEAR REACTOR PURCHASES:
India’s top diplomat also hinted on Sunday that New Delhi could ban nuclear reactor purchases from countries refusing to sell sensitive nuclear technology to it after suppliers decided to tighten such trade against countries like India. Nirupama Rao, the top Indian diplomat, also said the United States, Russia and France stood by their promises to supply such technology despite last month’s decision by the Nuclear Supplier Group (NSG) to restrict transfer of uranium enrichment and reprocessing technology, which could be used to make atomic bombs.
The suppliers’ decision was seen as a blow to nuclear-armed India, which won a waiver from such trade restrictions in 2008, a move that ended its three-decade-long nuclear isolation. “I think the latest NSG decision is not the end of the road. It is not set in stone. Let me say that,” Rao told a television channel in an interview, the transcript of which was made available in advance by the Indian Foreign Ministry.
“There is a balance of interest, there is a balance of commitments, there is mutual reciprocity involved. There are leverages that we can exert from our side also,” she said.
