|
India Remains Opposed to Signing NPT, Foreign Minister Says
Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday reaffirmed the government's opposition to signing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, arguing that it unfairly favors the official nuclear-weapon state, the Hindu reported.Our position is very clear. We are totally in agreement that those who are signatories to the NPT, they must fulfill their treaty obligations. Because of this discriminatory nature, we are not signatories, but with the objectives of nonproliferation, we are with the rest of the world, Mukherjee said in New Delhi. We are second to none in propagating nonproliferation but we did not sign the NPT and we do not have any intention of signing the NPT because we disagree with the objective. We disagree with the gross discrimination which these treaties make between nuclear weapon states and non-nuclear weapon states, he added. India developed nuclear weapons outside the treaty, as did neighboring rival Pakistan. After a decades-long freeze, New Delhi last year was allowed back into the international nuclear marketplace Posted by: john frum 2009-04-09 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=267205 |