‘Pak won’t use N-weapons first’

He prefers better economic ties with India and China

NEW DELHI: President Asif Ali Zardari said Pakistan won’t be the first country to use a nuclear weapon in any conflict with India and called for improved economic and political ties between the traditional South Asian rivals.

“I don’t feel threatened by India and India shouldn’t feel threatened by us,’’ Zardari said in a videoconference at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in New Delhi Saturday.

“We do not hope to even get to that position when we have to use (nuclear weapons),” he said and proposed a South Asia free of nuclear weapons.

Zardari said the impulse for reaching an accord on Kashmir should come from the people and politicians. He hoped that the need for a visa to cross the border could be scrapped and that an “e-card swipe’” would suffice.

India and Pakistan tested nuclear devices in quick succession in May 1998, leading to sanctions against both. The sanctions were lifted against Pakistan after it joined the US-led war on terrorism in 2001.

India ended more than three decades of nuclear isolation this year, having previously conducted a test in 1974, after reaching an agreement on fuel and technology supplies with the Nuclear Suppliers Group as part an accord with the US. India has said it won’t be the first user of an atomic weapon.

The Pakistan president said that he wanted to increase trade with India and China by taking advantage of their geographical closeness. He said trade, and not aid, was what
Pakistan needed, saying that nations have been spoiled by aid.