Group items tagged

As Japan on Tuesday renewed its call to India to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), India put the onus on the US and China for taking a lead by ratifying the agreement and reiterated its commitment to ''universal, verifiable and non-discriminatory'' nuclear disarmament. Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, left, shakes hand with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, after signing a joint statement in New Delhi, on Tuesday. APJapanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh that Tokyo expected New Delhi to sign the CTBT soon. Singh reminded Hatoyama about India's impeccable non-proliferation record and its unilateral and voluntary moratorium on nuclear explosive testing. "I expressed the hope that India would sign and ratify the CTBT," Hatoyama told reporters here at a joint press conference with Singh. "Prime Minister Singh told me that if the US and China signed the treaty, it would create a new situation." Hatoyama is currently on a tour to India. He and Singh held the annual India-Japan summit on Tuesday.

As Japan on Tuesday renewed its call to India to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), India put the onus on the US and China for taking a lead by ratifying the agreement and reiterated its commitment to ''universal, verifiable and non-discriminatory'' nuclear disarmament. Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, left, shakes hand with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, after signing a joint statement in New Delhi, on Tuesday. APJapanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh that Tokyo expected New Delhi to sign the CTBT soon. Singh reminded Hatoyama about India's impeccable non-proliferation record and its unilateral and voluntary moratorium on nuclear explosive testing. "I expressed the hope that India would sign and ratify the CTBT," Hatoyama told reporters here at a joint press conference with Singh. "Prime Minister Singh told me that if the US and China signed the treaty, it would create a new situation." Hatoyama is currently on a tour to India. He and Singh held the annual India-Japan summit on Tuesday.

As the Indo-US nuclear deal goes through the motions, India was today asked to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty(CTBT) by the UN organisation overseeing this non-proliferation measure. While announcing that Iraq had signed the CTBT in New York yesterday, the Executive secretary of the CTBT preparator commission Tibor Toth said India, North Korea and Pakistan must also become signatories to the treaty.

"Breaking the tradition of not naming countries, the first draft of the final document of 2010 Nuclear-Non Proliferation Treaty Review conference has asked India, Pakistan and Israel to join NPT and CTBT. "The conference calls upon India, Israel and Pakistan to accede to the treaty as non-nuclear weapon States, promptly and without conditions, thereby accepting an internationally legally binding commitment not to acquire nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices," the first draft of the document said. "The conference also calls upon India and Pakistan to maintain moratoriums on nuclear testing and calls upon India, Israel and Pakistan to sign and ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) without delay and without conditions," it said."

It had been clear from the outset that one of US President Barack Obama's priorities in his foreign policy would be the promotion of the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons technology. The fear of nuclear terrorism pervaded even his eloquent espousal of the elimination of nuclear weapons in Prague this spring, and his solution was the strengthening of the 40-year-old Non-Proliferation Treaty. The flurry of activity during the current session of the United Nations General Assembly, his "stern message" to the international community (to quote a US commentator), the attendance by the US secretary of state at the conference of the Organisation of the CTBT Member States and the unanimous UN Security Council resolution on non-proliferation would appear to have fixed the international agenda on nuclear issues for the immediate future at least.

It had been clear from the outset that one of US President Barack Obama's pri orities in his foreign policy would be the promotion of the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons technology. The fear of nuclear terrorism pervaded even his eloquent espousal of the elimination of nuclear weapons in Prague this spring, and his solution was the strengthening of the 40-year-old Non-Proliferation Treaty. The flurry of activity during the current session of the United Nations General Assembly, his "stern message" to the international community (to quote a US commentator), the attendance by the US secretary of state at the conference of the Organisation of the CTBT Member States and the unanimous UN Security Council resolution on non-proliferation would appear to have fixed the international agenda on nuclear issues for the immediate future at least.

A new era of US diplomacy under Barack Obama is providing fresh momentum for a global ban on nuclear tests, monitors in a UN-backed group said Tuesday. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), drawn up in 1996, has been signed by 181 countries and ratified by 149. But it needs to be ratified by nine others, including China and the United States, before coming into force. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) said recent positive signals from the Obama administration will persuade other countries to ratify. A conference is being held in New York this month to speed up the process.

A claim by a leading Indian scientist that one of India's nuclear weapons tested in 1998 "fizzled" has unsettled the military here and opened fresh debate about the need for more trials. The tests under the then-Hindu nationalist government sparked outrage the world over and drew sanctions, but were declared a success and are credited with propelling India to the status of full-fledged nuclear-armed state. India has still not signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), but any further tests have been ruled out by the Congress party-led government, which has also acclaimed the tests a complete success. Nevertheless, some in the nuclear and military establishment have used the scientist's claims to make a case for further trials, which would inevitably spark fresh tensions between India and its regional rivals China and Pakistan.

New York and Washington may be separated by only a few hundred miles, but in the last few weeks, they have appeared to be light years apart on arms control and nonproliferation issues. In New York, representatives of more than 100 countries worked from May 4-15 to prepare for next year's nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference. Buoyed by U.S. President Barack Obama's April pledge to seek a world free from nuclear weapons, their work was marked by a spirit of cooperation and compromise that had been noticeably absent during the eight years of the Bush administration. They approved an agenda for next year's event in record time and contemplated forwarding an ambitious set of recommendations to the conference. They welcomed the reinvigoration of U.S-Russian strategic arms talks and Obama's commitment to again seek ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) prohibiting nuclear weapon tests.

"Against the backdrop of the UN asking it to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, India on Sunday made it clear that it can't be a party to an agreement that it regards as "discriminatory". "Our position on NPT has been clearly articulated before. India's credentials in non-proliferation are well-known," said a government source here. "We have made it clear that we want complete, verifiable and universal disarmament," the source added. India will not be party to any agreement that it regards as discriminatory, government sources stressed, while reiterating India's oft-repeated position. At the end of the nearly month-long NPT review conference Friday, the UN has asked India, Pakistan and Israel to join the NPT and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) without further delay and pre-conditions. "