Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

No buckling on CTBT: Jaswant

'India ready for talks with Pak anytime, but only bilaterally'

Imda is ready to engage in a purposeful discussion on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) but New Delhi will not sign it under duress, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Jaswant Singh said on Wednesday.

"We cannot subscribe to it when a gun is put to our head and we are informed that either you sign this piece of paper or else," he said.

Addressing two separate Press conferences at the UN headquarters, Mr Singh said the proliferation arose principally from transfer of technology from nuclear weapon states which were not under any verification regime and other advanced industrial nations which had been "somewhat" permissive on the export of such technology.

Nuclear technologies, he said, had been used as commodities of international strategic trade and commerce.

Emphasising that India conducted its nuclear tests in "supreme national interest" as the security environment was deteriorating, he said the country's policy remains firmly committed to one basic tenet -- national security in the world of nuclear proliferation is either world disarmament or in the exercise of the principle of legitimate security for all.

This, Mr Singh said, had been the basis for India's consistent campaign for nuclear disarmament, nothwithstanding the fact that it faced a nuclear environment without parallel with two nuclear powers in its immediate neighbourhood.

Replying to a question, he said no other country had exercised the kind of restraint as India demonstrated for nearly quarter of a century after the Pokhran test in 1974.

But 1990s saw deterioration in the security situation which came about as much by the world realignment as the complicity of guardians of non-proliferation, he added.

Indians, comprising one sixth of the world population, he said, were seen merely as objects of security perception of others and assigned a particular place in the world order.

While the nuclear weapon powers justified their arsenals even against perceived non-nuclear threats, others were denied such a right even as a contingent option, he said.

Indian tests, he said, were a step taken in response to the security scenario created by interrelated developments, including legitimisation of weapons by "the haves", trends towards disequilibrium in balance of power in Asia, and unchecked nuclear and missile proliferation and difficult and insecure environment in the neighbourhood.

He also said India was ready to talk to Pakistan bilaterally "anytime, anywhere" on all issues, including Kashmir, but asserted negotations would not alter the reality that the Himalayan state was an integral part of the world's largest democracy.

India is ready to talk to Pakistan "on any date, anywhere, at any level, on any issue, including Kashmir", he said.

However, the confidante of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said it should be understood that talks would not "change or alter" the reality that Jammu and Kashmir was an integral part of india.

Mr Singh, here on a visit to make India's position clear after New Delhi's five nuclear tests and Pakistan's retaliatory six last month apart from leading a high-level delegation to the United Nations Special Session on Drugs, told a Pakistani correspondent that there was no need for mediators in any Indo-Pakistan talks.

"We understand each other's language perfectly. We see no need for interpretors or mediators."

"Indeed, even the Security Council resolution itself has recognised that bilateral dialogue has to be the basis for future ties and as methodology of moving towards mutually acceptable solutions," he said.

Strongly refuting the charge that India wanted to break up its neighbours, Mr Singh asserted that a stable, progessive, prosperous and democratic Pakistan was in everyone's interest.

Asked about Pakistan's nuclearisation, he said, "I can scarcely deny to Pakistan that which I claim as a right for myself."

He said it would be in the best interests of both the countries not to remain mired in the past and prisoners of old contentions.

"This is our belief that the current offers an opportunity to rebuild Indo-Pakistan ties on a foundation of much greater realism so that the future of the entire subcontinent is placed on a stable and more convincing basis," Mr Singh said. India's vision of Indo-Pakistan ties is not confined to resolution of outstanding issues alone, he said, adding it was directed to the future by seeking to build a stable structure of cooperation which would benefit the people of both the countries.

As Mr L K Advani has explained, Mr Singh said, India had the right to exercise a proactive policy as it had been a victim of State-sponsored terrorism.