India Will Not Be Forced Into Signing Ctbt, Says Shah

India will not be intimidated into signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) by threats of isolation or penalties, Indias permanent representative to the United Nations Prakash Shah said here.

Shah declared at a nuclear conference that India has a clear and consistent view that total nuclear disarmament in a timebound framework is the only way out.He was participating in the session on The CTBT: Facilitating Entry-into-Force at the annual nuclear nonproliferation conference organised by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Shah said, The importance of placing the CTBT firmly within the framework of nuclear disarmament has been enhanced by clear intentions of nuclear weapons powers to resort to nuclear testing whenever they feel their security is threatened. He said the recent unveiling of the ambitious $40 billion Stockpile Stewardship Program- me by the US department of energy is only the most visible demonstration of those intentions. He said the core issues of elimination of nuclear weapons within a prescribed timeframe and the redefinition of the scope of the treaty that would be in line with that objective needs to addressed as a first priority.

 

Shah said for these two issues to be addressed it would be necessary to work towards a comprehensive nuclear weapons convention to achieve a nuclear free world, rather than continue to expend our energies on pursuing partial and flawed nonproliferation agreements or conventions.

Shah dismissed the impracticality argument used during the Cold War as no longer valid. Looked at from this context, he said, the deliberately restrictive scope of the CTBT can only be explained by the failure to pursue the goal of global nuclear disarmament and to maintain the monopoly of nuclear weaponry of the nuclear weapon powers.

Shah emphasised that for India, entry-into-force of the CTBT is not the issue. The issue is the CTBT itself, he said. Global security cannot be enhanced by such partial or flawed measures.

He said Indias national security cannot be safeguarded in a world where legitimacy of nuclear weapons for security is reserved for a select few.

Shah acknowledged that despite this reality he would not be surprised if some countries still try to put the blame on India for this self-created tangled web of ratification by the signatories.

He asserted that there should be no misperception or willful misrepresentation about India joining this version of CTBT.

Shah said any assumption that the treaty had entered a different stage, that its operationalisation is the only issue and that its content is not, is both unwarranted and misplaced.

Referring to a recent report in the New York Times, Shah said the newspaper had highlighted the creation of sophisticated nuclear testing laboratories in the Nevada Test area under this programme. The laboratories were envisaged to use high explosives to send shockwaves through plutonium to create a critical mass and set off a chain reaction.

He said this was a disturbing confirmation of the repeated fears we had expressed about the partial and incomplete scope of the treaty.

According to Shah the spirit of the CTBT was completely violated by the determination to systematically pursue nuclear testing in laboratories and through computer simulation for upgrading existing weapons and gathering data to design new weapons.

He said Indias disappointment over the way in which the original goal of a CTBT had been diluted in the ultimate CTBT, in order to provide loopholes for continued nuclear testing by nuclear weapons powers had made Indian opinion weary of attempts to promote other ad-hoc discriminatory measures such as the Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT).

Shah noted that India, which was among the lead sponsors at the UN General Assembly Resolution of FMCT in 1995, had envisioned it within the overall context of nuclear disarmament.

He said for India to accept the FCMT, it has to be part and parcel of a negotiated, phased programme for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

Pakistans permanent representative to the Conference on Disarmament, Ambassador Munir Akram, who also participated in the same session, painted India as the intransigent one, refusing to compromise in any way.

Pakistan is not surprised at the trenchant opposition of our neighbour to the CTBT, he said. Akram claimed that for over 30 years, Pakistan has warned the world of this countrys nuclear ambitions.

Taking a dig at Washington for not coming down hard on India, Akram said unfortunately the bold rejection of the CTBT by our neighbour was facilitated by the placatory postures with which its opposition to the CTBT was sought to be overcome.