Avoiding nuclear conflict

Workshop ends with hope for Indo-Pak dialogue

By Amir Nafees

LAHORE: A two-day workshop on ‘Avoiding an India-Pakistan Nuclear Confrontation’ ended here with the participants hoping that both countries would start giving priority to holding talks in order to decrease the prevailing tension and rule out the possibility of a nuclear confrontation.

The March 11-12 workshop, arranged by a foreign non-governmental organization (NGO), Pugwash, was the first of its kind in Pakistan. The NGO had earlier organised two workshops in New Delhi and Geneva. The next workshop would be held in Geneva on May 15. Briefing newsmen about the workshop on Thursday, Pugwash Executive Director Jeffrey Boutwell and Secretary General Prof Paolo Cotta-Ramusino said the NGO wanted to create awareness among the people regarding the threat of nuclear confrontation in South Asia.

Talking about the Lahore workshop, they said the workshop had more than 30 participants, the majority from Pakistan but also from India, the United States, Russia and Italy.

Every participant took part in the meeting in his personal capacity and no attempt was made to reach a consensus or establish a specific plan of action.

The purpose of meeting was to have free exchange of ideas and contribute to a general dialogue on significant issues.

They said control of nuclear weapons and resuming dialogue between India and Pakistan were the main topics discussed in the meeting. The participants discussed the problem of nuclear weapons in India and Pakistan, of avoiding an early use of their nuclear weapons even in a situation of tension or a possible conventional confrontation.

They said a comprehensive report regarding the workshop would soon be made available to media. They said the purpose of the workshops was to bring together from around the world influential scholars and public figures concerned with reducing the danger of armed conflict and seeking cooperative solutions for global problems.

They said through meeting of people in their individual capacity, rather than as representatives of governments or institutions, Pugwash participants exchange views and explore alternative approaches to arms control and tension reduction with a combination of candour, continuity, and flexibility seldom attained in official East-West and North-South discussions.

Because of many Pugwash participants’ stature in their own countries, insights from Pugwash discussions tend to penetrate quickly to the appropriate levels of official policy-making, they added.

They said the NGO takes its name from the location of its first meeting, in the Canadian village of Pugwash — birthplace of US philanthropist Cyrus Eaton, who hosted the meeting.

The stimulus for that gathering was a Manifesto issued in 1955 by Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein which called upon scientists of all political persuasions to assemble to discuss the threat posed to humanity by the advent of thermonuclear weapons.

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