Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

India advocates need for measures to avert nuclear wars

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New Delhi, June 10, IRNA
India-Nuke Disarmament-Pranab
Advocating the need for measures to avert nuclear wars, India's External Affairs Minister, said the pursuit of clandestine activity in respect of nuclear technology is unacceptable.

He also reiterated India's support to international negotiations to usher in universal nuclear disarmament and non proliferation.

Addressing a two-day International Conference on Nuclear Disarmament in New Delhi, Pranab Mukherjee called upon all countries to live upto their commitment transparently to ensure nuclear non proliferation.

He described the clandestine transfer of atomic know-how as dangerous.

Mukherjee said India is ready to support multilateral negotiations leading to an early conclusion of nuclear weapons convention prohibiting the development, production, testing, deployment, stockpiling, threat or use of nuclear weapons and providing for further elimination.

He said practical steps that reduce the danger of nuclear war posed by present hair trigger alert of nuclear weapons can be contemplated.

The External Affairs Minister said, these steps will also advance the process of illegitimization of nuclear weapons in line with a comprehensive convention to eliminate chemical weapons.

He added that the steps must include strengthened commitments on non proliferation especially to prevent leakage of dangerous technology to non state actors.

Earlier addressing the conference, the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh reiterated India's commitment to nuclear disarmament and said the pursuit of this goal will not only enhance India's security but also the security of all other countries.

He said these objectives can not be achieved through partial methods and approaches as nuclear weapons know no boundaries.

The two-day conference, organized by the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a non-government think tank, is attended by disarmament experts and former diplomats from India, the US, China, Russia, Australia and Canada.

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