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China urges India to abandon nuclear weapons
 | If the Chinese are against it, I'm for it. |
BEIJING - China urged India to abandon nuclear weapons and strengthen atomic safeguards as President George W. Bush and the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sealed a controversial nuclear pact on Thursday. Under the deal signed while Bush visited Delhi, the United States offered India nuclear fuel and technology in return for India agreeing to put a wall between its civilian and military nuclear facilities and place its civilian programme under international inspections.
India should sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty and also dismantle its nuclear weapons, a spokesman for Chinas Foreign Ministry, Qin Gang, told a news briefing in Beijing. As a signatory country, China hopes non-signatory countries will join it as soon as possible as non-nuclear weapon states, thereby contributing to strengthening the international non-proliferation regime, he said.
Qin said current international safeguards on nuclear weapons were the hard-won product of many countries efforts and should not be weakened by exceptions. China hopes that concerned countries developing cooperation in peaceful nuclear uses will pay attention to these efforts. The cooperation should conform with the rules of international non-proliferation mechanisms, he said.
| Funny how this wasn't a problem back in the 1960s when the Chinese were building their first bombs. |
The NPT grants China, the United States, Russia, France and Britain status as nuclear weapons states, but bars other signatory countries from having such weapons.
China has been pursuing nuclear power cooperation with Pakistan, Indias long-time rival, and has also hosted stalled six-party talks on North Koreas nuclear weapons programme.
| And we all remember how angry the Chinese were with Khan. |
China urged Iran on Thursday to cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog and suspend nuclear enrichment activities, adding to rising international pressure on Teheran. China hopes Iran will fully cooperate with the agency and clarify the unresolved questions about its nuclear programme and will restore the international communitys confidence in Iran, ministry spokesman Qin said.
| "Mr. Quid, this is Mr. Pro. Mr. Pro, meet Mr. Quo." |
Posted by: Steve White 2006-03-03 |
