NEW DELHI (PTI) India ‘Monday categorically ruled out signing of the nuclear non-purification treaty and virtually ejected a five-nation summit proposal put forward by the united states to discuss non-proliferation in south Asia as an exercise in acrimony. In a suo moto statement in the Lok sabha, minister of state for external affairs Eduardo Faleiro said the Indo-US consultation on special 301 could continue at the Uruguay round to narrow down differences wherever possible, Dealing with a number of issues relating to the to us relations which were. Discussed in Washington by foreign secretary j n dixit, the minister said
India’s serious concern had been conveyed to the u son a so-called pentagon paper the paper favored ‘Aus- Pakistani military relationship ‘promo testable security conditions in south-west Asia and central Asia
The minister said that to sign the ‘pi, including from the erstwhile Soviet Union would like to categorically state that there is no change in India’s position with regard to the NPT. In Washington, ‘The foreign secretary reaffirmed ‘our position that India would not sign the NPT since it considered the treaty to be discriminatory faleiro said in five-page statement on the reported pentagon advocacy for a continued substantial US military relationship with Pakistan, dixit strongly conveyed India’s views that while it was a bilateral matter between Washington and Islamabad, this would naturally have consequences in terms of Indian assessments and policy orientation,
The statement emphasized On the ‘nuclear question, faleiro said India had always been against the proliferation of nuclear weapons and recalled late Rajiv Gandhi’s action plan which sought to eliminated all ‘weapons of mass destruction in stages, eventually leading to ‘nuclear weapon free and nonviolent world the government offered to consider a forceful demand by the opposition for a full-fledged debate on the Indo-us relations in the house, he said.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 27, 1992
