Pakistan Announces Moratorium on A-Tests

The government of Pakistan announced a moratorium on nuclear testing Thursday and offered new peace talks with India to address their dispute over Kashmir and other flash-point issues.

Without a settlement of rival claims to Kashmir, Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan said, there is a strong possibility of a fourth--and probably nuclear--war between India and Pakistan.

“Here there is an open conflict going on daily,” Khan said. “Where there is such a threat from the Hindu fundamentalist [government in India], you can expect a nuclear launch and a nuclear escalation.”

The test ban was announced in a Foreign Ministry statement that also called for new peace talks with India to “address, on a priority basis, the issues of peace and security and Jammu and Kashmir.”

It said Pakistan was suggesting a “no nuclear test” pact with India as the first “confidence-building measure at the regional level.”

Tensions between Pakistan and India have been high since the two countries conducted tit-for-tat nuclear tests. India set off a total of five nuclear blasts May 11 and 13; Pakistan responded with six tests of its own two weeks later.

India had already announced its own moratorium on further nuclear tests and said it planned to make the moratorium binding through international negotiations.

Both sides have also said recently that they were open to talks.

Last month’s nuclear tests prompted immediate condemnation. Led by the United States, several countries have imposed economic sanctions against the two South Asian rivals, moving to cut off foreign investment and credit as punishment.

Saturday, the U.N. Security Council unanimously passed a resolution urging India and Pakistan to suspend their nuclear weapons programs.