GENEVA: The United States and its allies denounced India for preventing nuclear test ban treaty from being adopted in Geneva and yawed to bring the pact to the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) for Signature, The move by Indian ambassador Arundhati Ghose also drew immediate fire from Pakistan, whose envoy expressed concern about the “nuclear ambitions”’ of its eastern neighbor. In speech. Ghose confirmed India was vetoing the formal adoption of the treaty by the Conference on Disarmaments and blocking its transmission to the United Nations i in New York. “Our opposition to that text continues;” Ghose said. “We would not, therefore, agree to it being forwarded to the UNGA in any form by; this conference.”
New Delhi objects that the pact fails to commit nuclear powers to a firm timetable for total disarmament and does not stop them from making qualitative improvements in their nuclear arsenals through computer simulation and other costly methods. It rejects a key clause saying that the pact would become law upon ratification by 44 states including India The five declared nuclear powers (Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States) were marshaling support to rescue the global pact and send the text via a special resolution to New York for action, according to Western diplomats, The conference holds its next plenary session on Thursday to discuss the fate of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), a landmark pact banning all nuclear explosions.
U.S, disarmament ambassador Stephen Ledger said; “India has formally vetoed the treaty text and made it clear that it would take whatever step was necessary to prevent the text being acted upon by the Conference on Disarmament.” But he said India was alone among the 44 countries with nuclear arms or nuclear reactors in objecting to the pact’s entry in to force formula and accused it of insincerity in its arguments against the draft treaty. “The real reason is that the current government in New Delhi wants to maintain the Indian nuclear weapon option,” Ledger said. “That’s regrettable, but that’s within the sovereign right of India. “The problem now is how the rest of us can do what we have to do,” he added. “We are now consulting, the rest of us, as to how, despite this most regrettable development in the Conference on Disarmament, we can get this text to New York for further action. That has to be done promptly. We have in effect played out the CD’s options with this veto,”
Britain’s ambassador Sir Michael Weston agreed that India’s rejection left no hope for reaching a pact through the Geneva forum, which began negotiations in January 1994. “Of course, we had always hoped it could be done by the CD in the orthodox way,” Weston said. “Now that looks clearly impossible.” “As far as the text goes, there are plenty of other ways to get it to New York if that is what people want to do,” he said.
Pakistan, a nuclear “threshold” state which has said it will not sign the pact unless India does, immediately take the floor after Ghost’s speech to put the blame squarely on its rival. Ambassador Munir Akram said in a speech: “Today, the mask of the “Smiling Buddha’ has been tom off revealing the face the Goddess of War.” Akram was referring to India’s only nuclear blast in 1974, which was followed by the coded message “the Buddha has smiled.” “The leaders of our neighbor have proclaimed that they will keep their nuclear “options’ open, that they reserve the right to conduct nuclear tests, that they will go ahead with their short and medium range missile programs, Akram said, But the Pakistani said his country would be against any procedural Maneuvers sidestepping the Geneva body. “We are all aware that the CTBT may well rise from the ashes, like the Phoenix, in the U.N. General Assembly. “Pakistan would regret any procedure that circumvents the C.D.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 28, 1996
