JAMMU, India: Indian Defence Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav said India would not buckle under Western pressure to sign a pact that outlaws nuclear testing, saying it was discriminatory. “We cannot accept the fact that a few countries will be allowed to rely on nuclear weapons for their security while denying the same right to others. This is not the treaty which we had envisaged,” Yadav said. “We will not act under any pressure. We will act only to safeguard the interests of our country, its security, solidarity and sovereignty,” Yadav told reporters in Jammu, the winter capital of the border state of Jammu and Kashmir.
India last week said it would not sign proposed Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) being negotiated in Geneva because the pact does not require the five nuclear powers to disarm and would undermine national security. India, which exploded a nuclear device in 1974, says it uses its nuclear research program only for peaceful purposes like power generation. Wedged between nuclear capable China and Pakistan, which is widely believed to be nuclear capable, New Delhi Says it has no nuclear weapons program and does not plan to conduct a second test.
Pakistan’s ambassador to CTBT talks, Munir Akram said in Geneva India’s declaration that it could not sign the pact *’could spell the death knell of the treaty.” Akram also sharply criticized the current draft but stopped short of saying Pakistan would not sign.
Yadav is the first minister of the 24dayold United Front coalition government to visit the troubled Kashmir Valley since a separatist revolt erupted in 1990, India has repeatedly accused Pakistan of arming and training the militants — a charge Islamabad denies. Experts believe Pakistan and India, which have fought two of three wars since
1947 over Kashmir can quickly assemble nuclear arms.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 3, 1996
