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Indian scientists fear that the subcontinent's ‘tit-for-tat’ nuclear tests are likely to set back significantly recent attempts to improve cooperation with colleagues from Pakistan.

The prospect of a ‘cold war’ between the countries is expected to raise the political pressure on scientists from both sides to reduce contact with each other. One event whose fate hangs in the balance, for example, is a conference for scientists from non-aligned countries that Pakistan had proposed to host this year.

“Only last week we had received a letter from Pakistan offering to host the conference,” says K. N. Johry, director of the Centre for Science and Technology of the Non-Aligned Countries, whose headquarters is in New Delhi. “We do not know if the offer still stands.”

Pakistan has been an active member of the centre, which promotes scientific exchanges among its 38 member nations. “Scientists from Pakistan played key roles in meetings on medicinal plants organized by the centre last December, and another on DNA fingerprinting,” says Johry.

Another potential casualty is the year-old Indo-Pakistan Friendship Forum, which aims to bring Indian and Pakistani health experts together to tackle common problems such as maternal mortality and hepatitis B.

The project's co-founder, Vulimiri Ramalingaswami, a leading health scientist in the region, says it is “lying dormant now”. But he hopes to revive it “once the nuclear dust settles”.

Indira Nath, former foreign secretary of the Indian National Science Academy in New Delhi, says the political fall-out from a potential nuclear arms race will set back scientific exchanges.

The Indian and Pakistani science academies do not have direct exchanges “but we get involved with each other through the Federation of Asian Science Academies,” says Valangiman Ramamurthi, secretary of India's science ministry.