Security concerns regarding Pakistan to be expressed at US-India meet

Washington, Nov.23 (ANI): The US can expect some plain speaking from the Indian delegation regarding Pakistan and the blanket cheque that the super power seems to be giving India's South Asian neighbour.

Sources said that India will express its concerns regarding the security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal in view of the deteriorating law and order situation in that country.

This will come up during talks that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will have with her Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna and Indian National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan.

Stephen Hadley, an arms control expert who served as National Security Adviser to former U.S. President George W. Bush, said: "There is a lot of concern about what happens to Pakistan's nuclear weapons if the government fragments in some way."

Hadley, who now advises the United States Institute of Peace, a Washington-based think-tank, spoke at a three day international security conference in Halifax, where the worsening insurgencies in Afghanistan and Pakistan was discussed by defence ministers, academics and military leaders from the Americas, Asia and Europe.

The Indian Government is not as confident as the US Government about whether Pakistan's nuclear weapons are safely in the control of its civilian government or whether rogue elements in the Pakistan Army or the intelligence agency ISI could get hold of them.

Pakistan is said to have about 60 to 80 nuclear weapons and sources said that information sharing on such crucial matters will be part of the discussions over the next three days.

The US State Department while aware that the situation in Pakistan is precarious will not openly admit that its problem managing what is happening in Pakistan. Maybe just a shade better than what is happening in Afghanistan.

The Indian security top brass will also express its concern this week about the transfer of arms and ammunition and surveillance equipment to Pakistan, which might be used against India instead of the war against the Taliban. By Smita Prakash (ANI)