Pakistan Gets Full-Court Press From U.S. on Tests

The United States stepped up its efforts Thursday to persuade Pakistan not to begin new nuclear weapons tests, amid mounting indications that it may be preparing to do so as early as this weekend.

As a high-level U.S. diplomatic delegation flew to Islamabad, the capital, for direct talks with Pakistani officials, the White House and the State Department renewed their appeal to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to hold off on such testing despite strong domestic pressure stemming from India’s nuclear explosions this week.

Partly to bolster U.S. credibility with the Pakistanis, senior U.S. officials were unusually blunt in criticizing India for having systematically misled the United States about its weapons-testing plans.

State Department spokesman James P. Rubin charged that Indian officials had engaged in a “campaign of duplicity” about their intentions, adding that India’s explanations now “simply don’t hold water.”

Rubin also conceded that the U.S. delegation to Islamabad, headed by Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, was prepared to offer significant incentives to Pakistan if it eschews new testing. “They’re not going empty-handed,” he told reporters at a briefing.

Officials here declined to disclose what specific incentives the United States might offer Pakistan. But there was some speculation that it might be offered compensation for money lost in 1990 when an order of F-16 fighters it bought from the United States was blocked after Pakistan conducted its last nuclear test.

Pakistani leaders appeared to be cautious in their comments in advance of the talks with the U.S. delegation. After a Cabinet meeting chaired by Sharif, a government spokesman said only that his country’s actions would be “consonant with the threat we are facing.”

Sharif told President Clinton during a telephone conversation earlier this week that he could not offer any assurances that Pakistan would refrain from further testing, saying he was under considerable pressure at home in the wake of the Indian explosions.

Asked Thursday about reports that Pakistan was preparing to conduct its own nuclear tests imminently, Rubin replied: “We are aware of the strong political pressure that exists in Pakistan to do that, and we have reason to believe that that is a live possibility.”

Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council on Thursday deplored India’s nuclear test explosions and urged “maximum restraint” and dialogue to ease tensions between India and Pakistan.

The Clinton administration also was seeking to persuade the leaders of Britain, Germany, Japan, France, Italy, Canada and Russia to join in a strong formal condemnation of India’s action at their annual summit, to be held in Birmingham, England, today and Saturday.

In Eisenach, Germany, where Clinton was meeting with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Deputy National Security Advisor James Steinberg joined Rubin in making clear the administration is angry that it was misled by Indian officials about the new, Hindu-nationalist-led government’s intention to resume nuclear testing.

Asked about India’s assertion that its tests are now complete and that it is not planning any further explosions, Steinberg shot back that “given the lack of forthcomingness” of the Indian government, “I don’t think we take what they say as the gospel truth.”

The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security estimated Thursday that India has enough plutonium to manufacture about 74 nuclear bombs, while Pakistan has only enough on hand to make 10.

Times staff writers Elizabeth Shogren in Eisenach, Germany, and Dexter Filkins in New Delhi also contributed to this report.