US, India should begin classified exchanges on Pak: Report

Washington, Sep 21: India and the US should prepare a plan for exigencies in Pakistan if there is a collapse of the state structure and a threat to the safety of its nuclear weapons, which could fall into the hands of terrorists.

"The US and India should begin classified exchanges on multiple Pakistan contingencies, including the collapse of the Pakistan state and the specter of the Pakistan military losing control of its nuclear arsenal,"

a report jointly brought out by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and Aspen Institute has recommend.

"The obvious point that the United States and India have vital national interests in the future of nuclear weapons and material in Pakistan, which is the largest producer of fissile material in the world today, and which is moving toward a nuclear doctrine of battlefield capability," former US envoy to India Robert Blackwill said at a panel discussion here.

The report says that Pakistan may well be in secular decline, and that the US strategy followed by the last two administrations has failed to bring Pakistan to act against the terrorist groups that kill Indians and Americans in Afghanistan.

It calls for a new strategy and part of that new strategy should be a heavy condition on all future arms transfers to Pakistan and the its military moving against terrorist groups.

The growth of the Pakistani nuclear arsenal, its possible greater dispersion in conjunction with battlefield roles, and the systemic stresses on the Pakistani state all could negatively affect over time the arsenal's safety and security.

These vital national interests make this the primary concern of the United States and India regarding Pakistan, says the report that runs into more than 60 pages.

PTI