14 May 1998
UNITED NATIONS REPORT, THURSDAY, MAY 14, 1998
(India, Iraq, Sudan, Cyprus) (2470) "A WORLD OF NEWS FROM THE WORLD ORGANIZATION" Daily Highlights Wednesday, 13 May, 1998 This daily news round-up is prepared by the Central News Section of the Office of Communications and of Public Information at the United Nations. ............. -- UN Secretary-General and General Assembly President express disappointment at India's latest nuclear tests. ............ -- -- -- UN SECRETARY-GENERAL AND GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT EXPRESS DISAPPOINTMENT AT INDIA'S LATEST NUCLEAR TESTS. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said he is "deeply disturbed" by India's announcement that it conducted two more nuclear tests on Wednesday. India carried out three underground nuclear tests on Monday. In a statement issued by his Spokesman, the Secretary-General noted India's announcement that Wednesday's tests were expected to complete the series and its qualified offer to adhere to some of the undertakings of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) selectively. The Secretary-General said he continued to look forward to the unequivocal assurance of India and all other States that the international community's norm on nuclear testing and non-proliferation would be adhered to, in order that progress towards nuclear disarmament - - a common desire of all States and peoples -- can be achieved as soon as possible. The President of the UN General Assembly, Hennadiy Udovenko of Ukraine, expressed "dismay and disappointment" at the series of underground nuclear tests conducted by India. In a statement issued by his spokesman, Mr. Udovenko said in recent years there have been encouraging signs in the field of nuclear non- proliferation and nuclear disarmament. With the virtual cessation of nuclear testing and the landmark conclusion of the CTBT, the international community sent an unambiguous message as to the future of nuclear non-proliferation. During its current session, the General Assembly had reaffirmed its commitment to creating a nuclear-weapon-free world and welcomed recent unilateral, bilateral and multilateral steps by States to promote the regime of nuclear non-proliferation. Regrettably, the spokesman said, the latest series of tests ran contrary to that positive trend. The Assembly President would like to emphasize the need to maintain the international momentum to promote nuclear disarmament. Meanwhile, India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, K. Sharma, said in a UN Radio interview on Wednesday that he did not think his country's five nuclear tests -- its first since 1974 -- were provocative. "There's nothing provocative about not testing for 24, 25 years," he said. "India has been a model of restraint and all that in an environment where we have a fair amount of nuclear promiscuity around us." Ambassador Sharma said it was bad and destabilizing for the region to have a billion people in a continental land mass the size of India, in a "heavily nuclearized environment", feeling insecure. He said India reiterated its offer to consider adhering to some of the undertakings in the CTBT. "This is a very forward position because we have had problems with the CTBT," he added. -- -- -- ................
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