India on Saturday urged the West to remove blocks on the transfer of critical nuclear technology, offering an assurance that New Delhi had effective tools to prevent proliferation. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also said India, which declared itself a nuclear state with a string of weapons tests in 1998, was determined to carry on with its atomic energy programmes to augment the country's ailing conventional power sector. "India will not be the source of proliferation of sensitive technologies. We will ensure that those technologies, which we already possess, will be effectively safeguarded," he said at a nuclear facility in this southern Indian city. "While we are determined to use our indigenous capability to fulfill our national interest, we are doing so in a manner that is not contrary to the larger goal of nuclear non-proliferation," Singh said. Singh criticised the tray of US-led sanctions which were slapped on rivals India and Pakistan after their tit-for-tat nuclear tests, saying such restrictions harmed development. "Technology denial and closing avenues for international cooperation in such an important field is tantamount to denial of developmental benefits to millions of people, whose lives can be transformed by the utilisation of nuclear energy and relevant technologies," he said.
| It also keeps loonies from getting their mitts on nukes. |
Singh did not name rival Pakistan but made reference to recent disclosures of proliferation from the neighbouring country. "India remains faithful to the "atom-for-peace' policy despite the well-known and glaring examples of proliferation which have directly affected our security interests. (And) constraining those who are responsible and rewarding those who are irresponsible -- the international community should face up to the implications of the choice," he said in Kalpakkam, the hub of the country's civilian nuclear programme. India, which refuses to endorse either the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty or Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, hopes to generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity from its atomic power plants by 2020. |