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Vajpayee rejects Security Council admonishment on J&K issue

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today rejected as ''unacceptable'' the United Nations Security Council's call to India to stop its nuclear and missile programmes, making it clear that New Delhi would never accept internationalisation of the Kashmir issue.

Responding to Rajya Sabha members who raised the issue of the Security Council's Saturday resolution on nuclear tests conducted by India and Pakistan, Vajpayee told the Rajya Sabha that any decision regarding the country's nuclear or missile programme would be taken by the government ''on the basis of our own assessments and national security requirements in a reasonable and responsible manner.''

The prime minister said, ''This right which we claim for ourselves is not something new, it is the right of every sovereign country and a right that every government in the country has strongly upheld for the last 50 years.''

Regretting that the Security Council had chosen to mention Kashmir in its resolution, Vajpayee said, ''This is unacceptable and does not change the reality that the state of Jammu and Kashmir is a part of the Indian Union.''

Vajpayee said India had always desired a peaceful, friendly and mutually beneficial relationship with Pakistan, based on confidence and respect for each other.

''I have already said on the floor of both Houses and I would like to reiterate that a secure and prosperous Pakistan is in India's interests.''

He said India's vision of a relationship with Pakistan was not confined to a resolution of outstanding issues but was also directed to the future by seeking to building a stable structure of co-operation which would benefit peoples of both countries.

Vajpayee said, ''As I recently wrote to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief, we must not remain mired in the past, prisoners of old contentions. And I say to him today, let us put the past behind us, let us think of the welfare of our children and grandchildren.''

India, he said, was committed to the path of bilateral dialogue with Pakistan and reiterated its desire for the resumption of the official level dialogue with Islamabad. The subjects for discussions, including peace and security (along with confidence-building measures), Jammu and Kashmir, economic and commercial co-operation and cross border terrorism had been identified.

Vajpayee said India's proposal for the modalities of the talks had been with Pakistan since January this year. "We await the response. We have also made it clear once again that there is no place for outside involvement of any nature whatsoever in our dialogue process with Pakistan," he said.

Noting that the UN Security Council had recognised that bilateral dialogue had to be the basis of India-Pakistan relations and mutually acceptable solutions had to be found for outstanding issues, including Kashmir, he said this was in keeping with New Delhi's position.

Regretting the Security Council's condemnatory reference to the Indian nuclear tests, the prime minister said the Council had acted in a manner which was completely unhelpful in respect of the objectives that the resolution sought to address.

"The resolution contains a number of references to nuclear proliferation as I had mentioned in my earlier statement in the House. We are a responsible member of the international community. The resolution urges us not to carry out any nuclear weapon test explosions. For India, such an urging is redundant because we have already instituted a voluntary moratorium," he said.

The prime minister said India had also indicated its willingness to explore ways and means of converting this undertaking into a de jureobligation."Further we have made clear our readiness to engage in multilateral negotiations on a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty in the conference on disarmament in Geneva. We cannot, however, be expected to commit ourselves in advance of these negotiations to unilaterally restrain production of fissile materials."

In keeping with the country's commitment to non-proliferation, India maintained the strictest control over export of nuclear materials and technologies, he said, adding that New Delhi's record in this regard had been impeccable and better than that of some countries who were parties to the NPT, members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group or even permanent members of the UN Security Council.

Vajpayee said a glaring lacuna in the Security Council resolution was the total absence of a recognition that the non-proliferation issue was not a regional issue but had to be dealt with in a non-discriminatory global context.

He said it was unfortunate that the Security Council resolution did not reflect on the judgement of the International Court of Justice which had questioned the legitimacy of nuclear weapons and called for urgent negotiations for their elimination.

He pointed out that in the paper, on the evolution of India's nuclear policy laid in Parliament, New Delhi had reiterated its commitment to nuclear disarmament. ''Let me categorically state that unlike other nuclear weapon states who had sought to retain their exclusive hold over their nuclear arsenals, India had no such ambition.''

The government, he said, was committed to initiatives which could open negotiations for a global convention for the elimination of all nuclear weapons. The attempt to project the recent test by India as a threat to peace and security was totally misguided and grossly out of focus, he added.

Vajpayee said such a portrayal of India's policy ignored the positive steps announced by the government in the global disarmament framework and the regional context. India's tests were necessary because of the failure of a 'flawed' non-proliferation regime. Therefore, New Delhi rejected the notion that these had adversely affected either regional or global security.

The government, he said, had indicated its willingness to engage in a meaningful dialogue with interlocutors on the whole range of nuclear disarmament and NPT issues. Last week he had sent his principal secretary Brajesh Mishra to Paris and London in this regard.

The prime minister said dialogues with other countries were also planned. These dialogues had to be seen as part of a process which would lead to better understanding of India's position.

Senior Congress member Pranab Mukherjee, who raised the issue, said it was unprecedented and absurd that India's permanent ambassador to the United Nations was not allowed to give his country's viewpoint at the Security Council meeting. He exhorted the government to authorise representatives who could talk to political parties on these issues and evolve a national consensus as sanctions looked imminent.

UNI

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