NEW DELHI, 10 June 2008 — Without going into the importance of the Indo-US nuclear deal for India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh referred to it obliquely as he opened here yesterday an international conference on a nuclear weapons-free world.
“Our energy needs will continue to rise in the foreseeable future. We do not have the luxury of limiting our options of energy sources,” he said. “We therefore wish to create an international environment in which nuclear technology is used not for destructive purposes but for helping us meet our national development goals and our energy security,” Singh asserted.
While expressing India’s support for nuclear disarmament and elimination of nuclear weapons, the prime minister categorically said that these moves should be global and not be confined to certain regions. If the nuclear powers were keen on moving toward a world free of nuclear weapons, they would have also to make moves in this direction.
Laying stress on India being fully aware of its responsibilities as a nuclear weapon state, Singh said: “We have a declared doctrine of no first-use that is based on credible minimum deterrence. We have in place strict controls on nuclear and fissile related materials and technology.
“Above all, India is fully committed to nuclear disarmament that is global, universal and nondiscriminatory in nature. The pursuit of this goal will enhance not only our security but the security of all other countries.”
In view of it being impossible to achieve these objectives through “partial methods and approaches,” Singh said, “the only effective form of nuclear disarmament and elimination of nuclear weapons is global disarmament. Nuclear weapons know no boundaries. Even today the nuclear arsenals in possession of the major powers are enough to destroy the world many times over. In this scenario it is not possible to ‘regionalize’ nuclear disarmament.”
Expressing India’s willingness to add its own weight and voice to the global debate on nuclear disarmament to reach a consensus on disarmament and nonproliferation, Singh referred to a working paper on nuclear disarmament India recently submitted to the United Nations General Assembly. Some of the measures, included in this paper are:
Reaffirmation of unequivocal commitment of all nuclear weapon states to the goal of complete elimination of nuclear weapons;
Negotiations of a global agreement among nuclear weapon states on “no-first-use” of nuclear weapons; and
Negotiation of a nuclear weapons convention prohibiting the development, production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons and on their destruction, leading to the global, non-discriminatory and verifiable elimination of nuclear weapons with a specified timeframe.
The two-day conference has been organized by Center for Strategic & International Studies and Indian Council of World Affairs.
