N-report disappoints India

New Delhi

15 December 2009

The report of International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and

Disarmament would have come as no surprise for New Delhi, as it admits the reality that

the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) will not admit India as a nuclear weapon state.

The 230-page report, released in Tokyo on Tuesday, seemed to echo the sentiments

contained in the resolution, recently moved by US President Barack Obama in the United

Nations Security Council, urging India and other NPT outliers to join as non-nuclear

weapon states.

India is disappointed that unlike the 1988 Rajiv Gandhi Action Plan, the report only spoke

of a phased approach to disarmament, without proposing a deadline for the elimination

of nuclear weapons.

Further, the report advocates applying equivalent non-proliferation and disarmament

obligations to India, Israel and Pakistan, ignoring their differentiated nuclear histories

and non-proliferation track records.

It ignores India's existing commitments and responsible behaviour in comparison with

the NPT Five and Pakistan, a source said.

The report comes a few weeks after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh earnestly hoped

that India will be invited to join the NPT as a nuclear weapon state.

"Well, if we were to go that way, that would be a very positive development from our

point of view. And we are a nuclear weapons state, but we are a responsible nuclear

power," Prime Minister Singh said in an interview to Fareed Zakaria's "GPS Show" on

CNN.

Notwithstanding Dr Singh's remarks, New Delhi has indicated it does not expect the NPT

to be amended to accommodate India as it would open a Pandora's box with Pakistan,

North Korea and Israel also seeking entry.

The Commission is an initiative by Australia and Japan but its report cannot be

dismissed because it is reflective of the views of major countries. India is represented

on the Commission by Brajesh Mishra, former national security adviser, who is one 15

commissioners on the panel, while Gen VR Raghavan (Retd) serves on the advisory

board along with 26 other advisers.

// Among the more significant of the report's 76 recommendations are: //

-- A world with less than 2,000 nuclear warheads, by the year 2025;

-- early movement by the nuclear-armed states on refining their nuclear doctrine to limit

the role of nuclear weapons and give assurances that they will not be used against non-

nuclear weapons states; and

-- support for the further development of civil nuclear energy, but with much more

attention being paid to creating disincentives to states building their own enrichment and

reprocessing facilities.

(Source: icnnd.org)