INDIA SUPPORTIVE OF EFFORT TO ENCOURAGE PROGRESS

C O N F I D E N T I A L NEW DELHI 000381 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/26/2020 TAGS: PGOV PREL PARM KNNP ENRG PK IN SUBJECT: INDIA SUPPORTIVE OF EFFORT TO ENCOURAGE PROGRESS IN CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT REF: STATE 13698 Classified By: Ambassador Timothy Roemer for Reasons 1.4 (B) and (D). ¶1. (C) On February 19, Post delivered reftel demarche on the role of Pakistan in the Conference of Disarmament (CD) and the United States, interest in supporting substantive discussions of FMCT to Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Director for Disarmament and International Security Affairs (DISA) Amandeep Singh Gill. Gill, who will be stationed in Geneva following the Nuclear Security Summit in April, said that India's relationship with Pakistan was already encumbered with enough sensitive issues that they could not engage Pakistan directly on the CD's Program of Work. CD members' silence on Pakistan,s behavior only served to allow Pakistan to take further digs at India. He cited Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the CD Zamir Akram's February 18 statement suggesting the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement was turning out to be a failure (including references to Under Secretary Tauscher's previous criticism of the deal) as an example of Pakistan's petulance. POLOFF explained that the sensitivity was well-understood and explained that the demarche was for all CD members and was part of the United States' attempts to break the silence. Gill followed up on February 26 by drawing attention to a February 25 statement by Brazil in the CD calling for progress. On FMCT side-line discussions, Gill was intrigued at the U.S. suggestion of exploring specific substantive concerns that would arise in the event of full FMCT negotiations. ROEMER