Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: India refused to abide by the UN Security Council resolution asking all non-NPT nations to sign the pact, saying it cannot accept the "externally prescribed norms or standards" on issues that are contrary to its national interests or infringe on its sovereignty.
India maintained that it cannot join the NPT as a
non-weapon country even as it reiterated its commitment to no
testing and no-first-use besides non-discriminatory universal
non-proliferation.
In a letter to UN Security Council President Susan E
Rice, India's Permament Representative to the UN Hardeep Singh
Puri has said "India cannot accept calls for universalization
of the NPT."
The development came as the UN Security Council
unanimously passed a resolution asking all countries which
have not signed the Non Proliferation Treaty to sign the
agreement.
Citing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement in
Parliament on July 29, Puri said "there is no question of
India joining the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon state. Nuclear
weapons are an integral part of India’s national security and
will remain so, pending non-discriminatory and global nuclear
disarmament."
He said India "cannot accept externally prescribed
norms or standards on matters within the jurisdiction of its
Parliament or which are not consistent with India’s
constitutional provisions and procedures, or are contrary to
India’s national interests or infringe on its sovereignty."
Puri contended India cannot comply with
non-proliferation obligations to which it has not provided its
consent.
The UN Security Council which
unanimously adopted the resolution asking all non-NPT states to
join the treaty at an unprecedented summit was chaired by
President Barack Obama who signalled that these countries
which included India must come on board.
The 15-member Council while urging "other states" outside
the NPT to join the controversial treaty as non-nuclear states
to help rid the world of atom bombs also urged all countries
to sign and ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)
and refrain from conducting atomic tests. India has not signed
the CTBT yet.
The 'other states' which were not named in the landmark
resolution were a clear reference to Pakistan and India, which
have not signed the NPT but are known to have atomic arsenals,
and Israel, which neither confirms nor denies having nuclear
arms but is believed to have a sizeable stockpile of warheads.
The resolution also calls for talks on drafting a treaty
to ban the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons.
The mandate of the Council came when it approved the
resolution 1887 which calls on countries that have not signed
the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) "to comply fully
with all their obligations."
Obama said the resolution will strengthen the NPT. "We
have made it clear that the Security Council has both the
authority and responsibility to respond to violations of this
treaty," he said.
"Nations with nuclear weapons have the responsibility to
move towards disarmament and those without them have the
responsibility to forsake them," Obama said.
The resolution declareD that the NPT remains the
cornerstone of the nuclear non-proliferation regime.
Questioning the locus standi of the Security Council in
the enforcing of NPT, the Indian envoy to the UN said the role
of the world body "would arise if those treaties (like the
NPT) themselves provide for such a role."
"We cannot accept any obligations arising from treaties
that India has not signed or ratified. This position is
consistent with the fundamental principles of international
law and the Law of Treaties," Puri said in the letter dated
yesterday which was released here today.
India, which has been maintaining that NPT is
discriminatory and flawed, pointed out that it had in 1992
prescribed norms and standards for national or international
conduct which the Security Council itself "must scrupulously
accept".
Underlining its commitment to universal disarmament and
non-proliferation, Puri said "it is clear that the
international community would look to the countries with
substantial nuclear arsenals represented on the Council for
meaningful steps towards nuclear disarmament."
The Indian envoy said "working towards our common
objectives would require a steadfast commitment to genuine
multilateralism to ensure viable and enduring solutions to
global peace and security".
"A more representative Security Council would add
credibility and vitality to such efforts," he said adding
India is committed to working with the international community
to "advance our common non-proliferation and disarmament
objectives so that we are able to fulfill the vision of a
world free of nuclear weapons."
The resolution calls for stepped up efforts to prevent
the spread of nuclear weapons, promote disarmament and "reduce
the risk of nuclear terrorism.
It was only the fifth time the Security Council met at
summit level since the U.N. was founded in 1945. And Obama was
the first American president to preside over a Security
Council summit, gaveling the meeting into session and
announcing that "the draft resolution has been adopted
unanimously."
Obama also made a reference to the apparent delay by the
US Senate to ratify the CTBT.
"We will move forward with the ratification of the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and open the door to deeper cuts
in our own nuclear arsenals," he said.
"In America I promise that we will pursue a new agreement
with Russia to substantially reduce our strategic war heads
and launches," the US President said.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed the summit
leaders for the resolution saying "This is a historic moment,
a moment offering a fresh start toward a new future."
"Although we averted a nuclear nightmare during the Cold
War, we now face proliferation of a scope and complexity that
demands new strategies and new approaches," Obama told the
Summit.
"Just one nuclear weapon exploded in a city, be it New
York or Moscow, Tokyo or Beijing, London or Paris, could kill
hundreds of thousands of people," the President said.
The Security Council endorsed an effort to lock down all
vulnerable nuclear materials within four years.
The Council also reaffirmed "their obligations in
relations to arms control and disarmament and to prevent
proliferation in all its aspects of all weapons of mass
destruction."
First Published: Friday, September 25, 2009, 00:47