WASHINGTON, Jan 12: An apparent new US embrace of India, particularly the recently concluded nuclear pact, has fuelled Pakistan’s anxieties about the balance of power in South Asia, says a report formulated for the US Congress.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS), which prepares policy briefs for US lawmakers, notes that the “joint US-India military exercises and arms sales negotiations can cause disquiet in Pakistan, where there is concern that induction of advanced weapons systems into the region could disrupt the ‘strategic balance’ there.”

The report adds: “Islamabad worries that its already disadvantageous conventional military status vis-à-vis New Delhi will be further eroded by India’s acquisition of sophisticated force multipliers.”

The report points out that Pakistan is not alone in feeling the heat of a rapidly increasing defence relationship between the United States and India. “In fact, numerous observers identify a pro-India drift in the US government’s strategic orientation in South Asia.”

Washington, however, regularly lauds Islamabad’s role as a key ally in the US-led counterterrorism coalition and “assures Pakistan that it will take no actions to disrupt strategic balance in the Subcontinent.”

The report warns that some policy analysts consider the apparent arms race between India and Pakistan as “posing perhaps the most likely prospect for the future use of nuclear weapons by states.”

The CRS recalls that the May 1998 nuclear tests by India and Pakistan created a global storm of criticism and represented a serious setback for two decades to the US nuclear non-proliferation efforts in South Asia.Following the tests, President Clinton imposed full restrictions on non-humanitarian aid to both India and Pakistan as mandated under Section 102 of the Arms Export Control Act. Despite these concerns, the United States concluded a nuclear deal with India last year, agreeing to provide reactors for producing energy. Critics say that this would free India’s own reactors for military uses and trigger a new nuclear race in South Asia.

According to the CRS report, India currently possesses enough fissile material, mainly plutonium, for 55-115 nuclear weapons; Pakistan, with a programme focused on enriched uranium, may be capable of building a similar number.

Both countries have aircraft capable of delivering nuclear bombs. India’s military has inducted short and intermediate-range ballistic missiles, while Pakistan itself possesses short and medium-range missiles. Pakistan, the report adds, has allegedly acquired these missiles from China and North Korea. Pakistani authorities say that while they may have received technical assistance from outside, they are now capable of making their own missiles.

All short and medium-ranged missiles in Pakistan’s arsenal “are assumed to be capable of delivering nuclear warheads over significant distances,” the report says.

The Congressional Research Service views proliferation in South Asia as part of a chain of rivalries — India seeking to achieve deterrence against China, and Pakistan seeking to gain an “equalizer” against a conventionally stronger India.In 1999, a quasi-governmental Indian body released a Draft Nuclear Doctrine for India calling for a “minimum credible deterrent” based upon a triad of delivery systems and pledging that India will not be the first to use nuclear weapons in a conflict. In January 2003, New Delhi announced creation of a Nuclear Command Authority. After the body’s first session in September 2003, participants vowed to “consolidate India’s nuclear deterrent.” India thus appears to be taking the next steps toward operationalising its nuclear weapons’ capability.