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India meets basic obligations of CTBT: Jaswant

India on Wednesday assured the world community that it would not obstruct the controversial Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty from coming into force and that it would continue to observe a moratorium on further nuclear tests.

"India volunteered and continues to observe a moratorium on further explosive nuclear testing. This meets the basic obligation of the CTBT," External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh said while participating in a United Nations General Assembly ministerial debate.

Singh declared that stability and development are the essential building blocks for the maintenance of international peace and security. "Threat to peace can and does arise from different sources. It is not just weapons of mass destruction or an arms race that endanger peace but also dehumanising poverty and lack of development," he said.

He said, "India also remains ready to engage in meaningful negotiations in the Conference on Disarmament, including on a global treaty to ban the future production of fissile materials for weapons purposes."

He welcomed the initiative of UN chief Kofi Annan to convene an International Conference on Eliminating Nuclear Danger. He urged commencement of negotiations on a Nuclear Weapons Convention to bring about a nuclear-free world.

India, he said, remains ready to participate in agreed and irreversible steps such as de-alerting of nuclear forces, thus lowering nuclear danger through accidental use or otherwise; also, a global agreement on no-first use and on non-use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapon states.

He urged rich nations to devote 0.7 percent of their Gross National Product for official development aid under a time-bound plan. Singh reminded them, "Developing countries and their people cannot thrive on a diet of advice and goodwill alone."

Among other things, he urged developing countries not to seek to restrict market access to goods and services and free movement of 'natural persons', especially at a time when developing countries are being asked to open up their economies and compete in the international economic domain.

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