WASHINGTON: India has turned down the US proposal to freeze either milaterally or milaterally with Pakistan the production of fissile material required for the manufacture of nuclear weapons.
Indian officials gave this information here on Nov.13 at the end of the two-day bilateral talks with their U S counterparts on the issues relating to arms limitation on prolincration and regional security.
Instead India insisted on a comprehensive freeze involving it the nuclear powers as had already been agreed to by the United States and Russia. New Delhi and Islamabad’s decision alone would not be of much help in this sphere they felt.
US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) director Ronald Lehman had recently gone on record as having said that the United States believed that a commitment against the production of fissile material in south Asia would not solve all the proliferation problems but it might set the stage for India and Pakistan to “walk away from the (nuclear) abyss.”
The Indian officials who were extremely satisfied at the outcome of the talks the second since the one in New Delhi in June said the US also gave up at least for the time being its earlier insistence on India signing the nuclear nonproliferation treaty (NPT).
Nor did Washington press upon India to agree to the Pakistani proposal for a five-power conference on freeing south Asia of nuclear weapons.
Though the NPT did figure in the talks unlike in the past it was not the focus of the discussion. The US however wanted India to sign at some stage the treaty which was due for revision in 1995.
The U S side made out a strong case for New Delhi agreeing to some kind of a regional non-proliferation arrangement obviously as an alternative to its earlier five power conference idea to evolve a south Asian non-proliferation regime.
US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the current rounds of India US Talks were “intended not to produce a specific agreement but to explore concrete ideas for reducing tensions and avoiding conflicts.
The talks included discussion of possible confidence and security building measures and ways to halt proliferation of chemical and nuclear weapons and ballistic miscible systems Boucher said in a prepared one-page statement.
He made it a point to mention that both India and the US agreed that their talks were “constructive and useful characterized by a cooperative friendly and positive tone throughout.”
The Bush Administration considers the talks as part of its ongoing efforts to reduce the global spread of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery and to promote peace and stability.
The Indian side raised the question Punjab and Kashmir pointing out to the US the immediate security threat in south Asia arising from the low intensity hostility and sub-conventional conflict with serious repercussions.”
In reply to a question an Indian spokesman said they did not discuss the recent US action of blacklisting the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) for decision to import rocked engine from Russia. However India explained position with regard to the missed technology control regime (MTCR) under which the U S reacted against the ISRO.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 27, 1992
