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UN disarmament committee backs Indian resolution

India scored a major diplomatic victory at the United Nations last week when the First Committee on Disarmament adopted the resolution moved by it, calling for urgent steps to reduce the risk of accidental use of nuclear weapons and a review of nuclear doctrines.

The resolution, which was carried by 68 votes in favour and 44 against with 12 abstentions, will now go before the General Assembly.

Briefing reporters in New Delhi, Dilip Lahiri, additional secretary (UN) in the external affairs ministry, said all the non-aligned, SAARC, and developing countries voted for the resolution while the United States, Britain, France and Russia voted against it.

China, the fifth permanent member of the UN Security Council, abstained, citing non-mention of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

All the European countries, including Sweden, along with New Zealand and Australia, also voted against the motion.

Lahiri said it was surprising that the nuclear-weapon states voted against a resolution that only seeks to lower the hair-trigger state of alert of their arsenals.

Their attitude exposes their intentions and their commitment to disarmament, he said.

On the other hand, he claimed, India's initiative on de-alerting nuclear weapons had proved its commitment to disarmament despite having acquired nuclear capability.

He said the US and others sought to mobilise support against the resolution by voicing fears that India was seeking back-door entry to the nuclear powers club by moving it.

Lahiri pointed out that though most countries, as signatories to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, had voted a day earlier for a resolution that deplored the nuclear tests conducted by India and Pakistan, they supported the Indian resolution too.

Now that the resolution is on the UN General Assembly's agenda, it will be carried by a wider margin, he predicted.

UNI

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