Redefine CTBT to eliminate nuclear weapons: India

C K Arora in Washington

India has called for redefining the scope of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty to ensure elimination of nuclear weapons within a prescribed time-frame.

Speaking at a conference on nuclear non-proliferation in Washington on Tuesday night, Prakash Shah, India's permanent representative to the United Nations, said New Delhi had a ''clear and consistent'' view that total nuclear disarmament in a time-bound framework was the only way out.

''For these two issues to be addressed -- and there is a rising demand in global public opinion to this effect -- 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 non-proliferation agreements or conventions,'' he added.

To begin with, Shah favoured the establishment of an ad hoc committee within the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament. The ambassador made it clear that ''there should be no misperception or wilful misrepresentation'' about India joining the version of the CTBT adopted by the UN General Assembly last September.

''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, in our view,'' he said.

Indeed, India had anticipated the post-treaty phase as well in its statements, Shah said, adding its representative in the General Assembly debate last year had made it clear that New Delhi would not join the CTBT in its present form, ''not now, nor later''.

The conference was organised by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Shah participated in the discussion The CTBT: Facilitating entry into force. Munir Akram, Pakistan's permanent representative to the CD, Michael Krepon of the Henry Stimson Centre, a Washington-based think-tank, and Peter Simmerman of the Institute for Defence Analyses were the other participants in the discussion.

''I have no view on a way out for either the signatories of the treaty or the authors of the EIF clause. Having got themselves into this situation, it is for them to ponder over this issue,'' Shah said.

The CTBT's EIF clause envisages that 44 countries, including the nuclear weapons states, must ratify the treaty before it comes into force.

''Consistent with its long-standing policy,'' Akram pointed out, ''Pakistan will be in a position to sign the CTBT only after its security concerns arising from our neighbour's intentions and capabilities are set at rest.''

He said India's complaints about the absence of nuclear disarmament and the discriminatory nature of the CTBT were ploys to avoid committing itself to a nuclear test ban treaty. Pakistan, he added, was willing to work constructively with all countries, including the early signatories of the CTBT to evolve measures which enable the treaty to come into force, if not now at least later.

Shah, ignoring the Pakistani criticism, said the EIF was not an issue for India. ''The issue is the CTBT itself,'' he remarked. ''Global security cannot be enhanced by such partial or flawed measures. Our national security cannot be safeguarded in a world where legitimacy of nuclear weapons for security is reserved for a select few.''

The unveiling of the ambitious $ 40 billion 'stockpile stewardship programme' by the US department of energy, Shah said, was only the most visible demonstration of those intentions. To drive his point home, he quoted a recent report in The New York Times which highlighted the creation of sophisticated nuclear testing laboratories in the Nevada test area under this programme. This, he said, was a ''disturbing confirmation of the repeated fears that India had expressed about the partial and incomplete scope of the CTBT''.

UNI