India’s diplomatic initiative for reshaping global opinion in its favour on the nuclear issue appears to have begun to pay some dividend going by the signals from the ASEAN Regional Forum meeting in Manila. Of course, the Vajpayee Government suffered the embarrassment of facing a hostile world not because it exercised the sovereign right to conduct nuclear tests in May but because of the post-Pokhran fulminations of some ministers and members of the Sangh Parivar. The thoughtless statements from all the wrong quarters caused more damage to India’s reputation as a votary of total disarmament than Pokhran II itself. Now Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has found the right man in the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Mr Jaswant Singh, for not only controlling the damage but also for stating India’s case on the nuclear issue cogently and firmly to the global community. It was largely due to the efforts of Mr Jaswant Singh that the ARF Chairman’s statement was toned down to include less harsh expressions like “grave concern” and “strongly deplore” for the original “condemn” for articulating the Forum’s stand on the nuclear tests. That it was a major victory for Indian diplomacy is evident from the fact that the USA and China, supported by minor global players like the UK, Australia and Japan, had put pressure on the ARF to outright condemn the nuclear tests conducted by India and Pakistan. In fact, Pakistan owes a debt of gratitude to Mr Jaswant Singh whose able advocacy of his country’s stand helped both to avoid being named. In the end the ARF statement was as balanced as it could be, given the geo-political power equations at the global level. While “strongly deploring” the nuclear tests it called upon the five recognised nuclear power states “to make further efforts towards achieving the ultimate objective of eliminating nuclear weapons.”

Mr Jaswant Singh, who has without doubt emerged as the country’s most able diplomat in recent times, not only effectively stalled efforts by the big powers to make the ARF turn the heat on India and Pakistan, but also succeeded in charming the usually belligerent US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright into softening her stand on the issues related to the nuclear tests. A relatively sweet-talking (by her harsh standards) Ms Albright is a rare sight in the tense theatre of global diplomacy. However, in relative terms his initiative to break the ice between India and China — which had gone into deep freeze after Pokhran II and the subsequent undiplomatic statements — was, perhaps more significant than to have made Ms Albright to smile. Mr Jaswant Singh’s meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister, Mr Tang Jiaxuan, in Manila was reportedly as fruitful as his other initiatives for winning friends for and influencing nations in favour of India. It can be said that as the special envoy of the Prime Minister he has done his bit by making the global community understand and appreciate India’s point of view on the CTBT, the NPT and the ultimate objective of total elimination of weapons of mass destruction from the planet earth. He has prepared the ground, as it were, for Mr Vajpayee to take the process further during the SAARC Summit in Colombo where Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif may again try to internationalise the Kashmir issue. In this context Ms Albright’s discussion with Mr Jaswant Singh should provide the Prime Minister the opening to make his Pakistani counterpart accept the wisdom and advantage of bilateral negotiations for resolving all the issues, including Kashmir. Ms Albright not only endorsed the bilateral approach on Kashmir but also urged the two countries to “resume high-level dialogue with each other.” Such a dialogue cannot go any higher than the level it will reach during the proposed meeting between Mr Vajpayee and Mr Sharif in Colombo.

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Courtesy: The Tribune: July 28, 1998