UNITED NATIONS: With less than a week to go before the world learns whether it has an unprecedented agreement to ban all nuclear weapons tests, U.S. and other negotiators at a disarmament conference in Geneva are waging a last-minute campaign to persuade India not to veto the treaty. Failing that, negotiators from 60 other countries, led by the five acknowledged nuclear weapons powers the United States, Britain, China, France and Russia are looking at strategies for taking the treaty to the United Nations General Assembly in the fall without the consensus normally required by the standing Conference on Disarmament. The move would amount to an end run around India, one of three countries thought to have a clandestine weapons program, along with Pakistan and Israel.

India objects to a provision in the treaty that requires the three “threshold nations” as well as the acknowledged nuclear powers to ratify the pact before it can go into force. New Delhi calls this an affront to its sovereign right to make its own decisions. Hopes for a unified stand among the rest of the countries were raised this week when the United States and China reached a compromise on the issue of onsite inspections. Under the compromise, 30 countries on a51member panel overseeing the treaty would have to agree to an inspection of suspect activity, China had wanted a higher figure, the United States a lower one.

The Clinton administration, which would like to see a public signing ceremony in time for the presidential election, has been lobbying the Indian government through the U.S. ambassador in New Delhi. Last week, Secretary of State Warren Christopher called India’s ambassador in Washington to the State Department for a pep talk, By early this week, U.S. officials hope to get a clearer picture of how close to unanimity with or without India support is for the existing treaty text. U.S. officials continue to hope that India’s friends in the developing world will help persuade New Delhi to drop its lone opposition before the conference ends. But at a news conference in Washington, John Holum, director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, seemed to be preparing for long term problems in getting the treaty put into effect.

Article extracted from this publication >>  August 14, 1996