Nuclear Non-Proliferation Virtually all responsible nations agree that the elimination of nuclear weapons is essential. However, there is no unanimity about how this can best be accomplished. India shares with most other nations the conviction that every effort should be made to eliminate the world's store of nuclear weapons, and it has demonstrated its commitment to this conviction in a variety of ways. It was India that first proposed an end to nuclear testing in 1954. "The principles for a Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) were first proposed by India in 1965. India eventually refused to sign the NPT when it became clear that, instead of addressing the central objective of universal and comprehensive non-proliferation, the treaty only legitimized the continuing possession and multiplication of nuclear stockpiles by those few states possessing them. Again, it was India that proposed in 1982 a convention to ban nuclear weapons, including a ban on the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons. Finally, it was India that put forward a comprehensive action plan for a nuclear-free world within a specific time-frame at the third United Nations Special Session on Disarmament, in 1988. In a speech before the United Nations, Rajiv Gandhi, then India's Prime Minister, argued "We cannot accept the logic that a few nations have the right to pursue their security by threatening the survival of mankind...nor is it acceptable that those who possess nuclear weapons are freed of all controls while those without nuclear weapons are policed against their production. History is full of such prejudices paraded as iron laws: That men are superior to women; that white races are superior to the coloured; that colonialism is a civilizing mission; (and) that those who possess nuclear weapons are responsible powers and those who do not are not." India's nuclear program is indigenous and entirely peaceful. In 1974, India carried out a peaceful nuclear explosion in the Rajasthan desert. It has neither carried out any test since, nor used its proven nuclear capability to advance a nuclear weapons program. As a responsible nation, it has never passed on this technology to another country. In India's view, the fact that the NPT has now been extended permanently makes immutable a dangerous state of affairs. The treaty permanently legitimizes the continued possession by nuclear weapon states of stockpiles that can destroy the world many thousands of times over. It does so without any binding commitment from these nations to strive for the goal in which India and others share - the complete elimination of nuclear weapons. India's approach to the current nuclear debates is a product of both history and geography. Since gaining its independence from Great Britain in 1947, India has been attacked four times by its neighbours - three times by Pakistan and once by China. China has possessed nuclear weapons for over 30 years, and it is now widely acknowledged that Pakistan possesses a nuclear weapons capability. Indeed, under the Pressler Amendment, the U.S. was forced to cut off economic and military aid to Pakistan since the U.S. President was unable to certify that Pakistan did not possess nuclear weapons. In 1994, Pakistan not only was involved in international plutonium-smuggling but it also received from China, with which it has an ongoing military relationship, long-range missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. The U.S. press has widely reported on hard evidence that Pakistan has obtained ring magnets, an item used for producing weapons-grade uranium, from China. Indian Initiatives Towards Pakistan India has proposed to Pakistan that an existing agreement not to bomb each other's nuclear installations be extended to population centres and economic targets. At the same time, India has proposed to Pakistan that the two countries agree not to use or to be the first to use their nuclear capabilities against each other. Unfortunately, Pakistan has not responded to either initiative by India. The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty As the first nation in the world to call for a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, India supported the idea behind the CTBT, but in discussions in the Conference on Disarmament, it also wanted to ensure that the CTBT did not legitimize existing nuclear arsenals as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty does. India's then Prime Minister, Narasimha Rao, in a joint statement with the President of the United States, Bill Clinton, stated on May, 1994, that they both supported efforts towards "non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, their means of delivery and towards their progressive reduction with the goal of elimination of such weapons." Our policy on the CTBT was succinctly and clearly restated by India's External Affairs Minister at the U.N. General Assembly on 29 September, 1995: "Two years ago, the international community at last agreed to negotiate a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. We are glad that negotiations are in progress, but we also note that nuclear weapon states have agreed to a CTBT only after acquiring the know-how to develop and refine their arsenals without the need for tests. In our view, the CTBT must be an integral step in the process of nuclear disarmament. Developing new warheads or refining existing ones after a CTBT is in place, using innovative technologies, would be as contrary to the spirit of CTBT as the NPT is to the spirit of non-proliferation. The CTBT must contain a binding commitment on the international community, especially the nuclear weapon states, to take further measures within an agreed time-frame towards the creation of a nuclear weapons-free world." India's fundamental concerns is that it does not want a "Nuclear Test Explosion Ban Treaty", which would merely allow the continuing expansion and refinement of existing nuclear arsenals through sophisticated laboratory techniques, but a genuine Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty without any loopholes. India holds that mere expression of intent have not been enough to make the nuclear-weapon states come to the negotiating table, and that the treaty should, therefore, clearly include a time-bound framework for total nuclear disarmament. The CTBT, as it emerged at the Conference on Disarmament, ignored all of India's concerns. India had no alternative but to stay out of that treaty, including opposing it in the UN General Assembly when the CTBT was sought to be legitimized through that forum through questionable legal sleight-of-hand. There is significant support emerging now for India's stand from the quarters who are most knowledgeable on this subject. Retired Air Force General, Lee Butler, Commander-in-Chief of America's strategic nuclear forces from 1991 to 1994 and the man in charge of America's nuclear weapons during this time, recently stated: "My experience as commander of America's strategic nuclear forces has pushed me to another conclusion: that a world free of the threat of nuclear weapons is necessarily a world devoid of nuclear weapons." He added: "Every President of the United States since Dwight Eisenhower has publicly endorsed elimination." The "Canberra Group" of experts also issued a statement that nuclear weapons can and should be eliminated. Long time nuclear disarmament proponent, former Prime Minister David Lange of New Zealand termed the CTBT, as it was being negotiated, as "hypocritical" and added that "the Indians have it right." For
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