Indian leader touching base with Congress

WASHINGTON (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee called on the United States on Thursday to show understanding for India's decision to accelerate the South Asian arms race two years ago by testing nuclear weapons.

In a speech to a joint session of Congress, Vajpayee said, ''Security issues have cast a shadow over our relationship. I believe this is unnecessary. We have much in common and no clash of interests.

''India understands your concerns. We do not wish to unravel your non-proliferation efforts. We wish you to understand our security concerns.''

He noted that both countries share a commitment to ultimately eliminating nuclear weapons and that both have declared voluntary moratoriums on testing.

At other points in his speech, Vajpayee hailed the progress in U.S.-Indian relations compared with the strained ties of the Cold War era.

''India and the United States have taken a decisive step away from the past,'' he said. ''The dawn of a new century has marked a new beginning in our relations.''

The Clinton administration also has welcomed the closer ties but has been concerned by an acceleration in the arms race, triggered by India's decision to engage in nuclear weapons tests in May 1998. Pakistan quickly followed suit with tests of its own.

The Clinton administration has been pressing India to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and officials have been disappointed at the lack of progress on that issue.

Vajpayee condemned the situation in which two-thirds of the world's population lives in poverty.

''It should be our common endeavor to overcome this legacy,'' he said. ''I, therefore, propose a Comprehensive Global Dialogue on Development.'' He offered New Delhi as the venue for the dialogue.

Vajpayee spoke to the Congress as a warmup for talks Friday with President Clinton.

In a speech to the U.N. Millennium Summit last week, Vajpayee said India had to take up the nuclear option although it preferred disarmament.

''The spread of nuclear weapons in our neighborhood made us especially vulnerable,'' Vajpayee said in reference to Pakistan, which also conducted nuclear tests in 1998.

During his stay here, Vajpayee also was expected to ask for support for Indian membership in the U.N. Security Council and to voice his concerns about the U.S. sanctions imposed after the nuclear tests that have not been lifted.

Administration officials say Clinton wants to build on what they regard as Clinton's successful visit to India in March.

Kanti Bajpai, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, said Clinton's visit ''was a grand psychological and political success, and there has never been a better time for an Indian leader to deal and deliberate with Americans.''

For most of 52 years since independence, India and the United States were on opposite sides of the Cold War divide, a situation Vajpayee sees as an anomaly. The world's two largest democracies, he has said, should be natural allies.

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