Officials from the Group of Eight nations and seven other countries disagreed in Tokyo on Thursday over whether to ease international economic sanctions on India and Pakistan, with some saying that the two countries have yet to demonstrate a further commitment to joining the global regime of nuclear nonproliferation.
No conclusions were reached at the third meeting of the expanded G8 Task Force on issues related to India and Pakistan, held at the Foreign Ministry.
Participants included senior officials from the G8 countries — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and Russia — and Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Ukraine, China, the European Union and South Korea. Seoul took part for the first time.
During the one-day meeting, the G8 Task Force focused on whether to partially resume economic assistance from international lending bodies, which was suspended after the two nations conducted nuclear tests last May, a ministry official told reporters after the meeting.
The U.S. delegation proposed that the G8 nations work to partially resume development aid from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to encourage the two nations to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the official said.
The delegation reported on U.S. Deputy State Secretary Strobe Talbott's visit at the end of January to India and Pakistan. The visit achieved significant progress in terms of nuclear nonproliferation, the official said.
Some of the other delegations, however, remained cautious about lifting sanctions or resuming lending, since the two nations have not taken any concrete steps toward implementing U.N. Security Council Resolution 1172, the official said.