3 July 2011
The recent decision of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) on transfer of sensitive enrichment and reprocessing technologies was "not the end of the road" as the new rules, which are not in the public domain yet, need to be studied before drawing any conclusion, foreign secretary Nirupama Rao said in an interview to an Indian TV channel.
In the interview, she insisted that Pakistan's attitude towards tackling terrorism has "altered", which was a "concrete" development that India should take note of.
Ms Rao said she has confirmation from the US, France and Russia that they stood by the commitments they made to India at the time of entering into civil nuclear cooperation agreements and that there was "no dilution of these commitments".
"As a professional engaged in this process, I think the latest NSG decision is not the end of the road. It is not set in stone," Ms Rao told Karan Thapar on "Devil's Advocate" programme on CNN-IBN.
"... these guidelines have not been published in open text as yet. We need to study that more fully and we need to draw our conclusions from that," she noted.
Asked whether her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir accepted the revelations made by Mumbai attacks case accused David Headley in a Chicago trial court, Ms Rao said the strategic link between the Pakistani state and militancy and terror needed to be broken.
"Well, he is not going to say that in so many words to me. I think it would be unrealistic for me to expect that the foreign secretary of Pakistan is going to say that," she said when asked whether Bashir admitted to the strategic link between the Pakistani state and terror outfits.
Noting that India has had sustained dialogue with Pakistan on the 26/11 issue, Ms Rao said concrete results seem to be very far off.
"We have not seen anything actually happening on the Mumbai trial and that is the point of great concern to us. But let me ask you a question. Does it mean that dialogue is not an option that we should pursue with Pakistan? ... I do not think you are making policy in a laboratory. You take into account the surrounding environment. You take into account the success of a certain approach or not."
"Did that approach (of not talking) yield too many dividends? Well, you have to make your assessment of that. I think the decision to re-engage with Pakistan and to talk about the issues that divide us, that create a gulf between us, to reduce the trust deficit, as the two Prime Ministers said, I think is a very realistic approach to dealing with problems with Pakistan," Ms Rao said.
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