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India calls for nuclear weapons convention

India on Tuesday called for a nuclear weapons convention to deal with nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, similar to the biological and chemical weapons' conventions.

At the special plenary session of the 61-nation Conference of Disarmament, India's ambassador Savitri Kunadi said the issues have to be discussed in a global framework and in a comprehensive and non-discriminatory manner.

She said India's concerns of security were not just South Asia, but global unlike Pakistan which is ''indo-centric''.

West Asian countries did not back a joint statement of the CD that India and Pakistan should immediately cease testing nuclear arms and join in the global move to eliminate the weapons.

Britain, US, China, France and Russia, along with European countries, Japan, South Korea, South Africa and Latin American nations supported the statement.

Kunadi said India does not intend to use nuclear weapons for aggression or for mounting threats. They are weapons of self-defence, she added.

India, in the past, she said, had called for total nuclear disarmament within a timeframe but never received a positive response from the nuclear weapon states.

She said India would not have gone in for the tests conducted last month if the nuclear powers had responded positively.

She said the touchstone of the nuclear tests was national security. India's security environment had become complicated with the accumulation of nuclear weapons and missiles in its neighbourhood.

The improved security environment in the West has not been replicated in Asia, she added.

India's traditional commitment to multi-lateralism is reflected in its active participation in organisations like the United Nations, she said.

India intends to deepen and strengthen its regional and global linkages as a result of economic liberalisation, she added.

UNI

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