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India, US close to deal on CTBT

The contents of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's address to the United Nations next week on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty will depend on the outcome of strategic talks between India's special envoy Jaswant Singh and United States Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott.

Singh and Talbott hold the crucial sixth round of diplomatic talks in New York on Monday, September 21.

Though conciliatory talks between India and the US since the nuclear tests in May have yielded good results, the main stumbling block to a host of strategic agreements between the two countries is the controversial CTBT.

The US and the other four permanent members of the United Nations Security Council have been pressing India to sign the CTBT unconditionally. But India wants substantial concessions in return.

Therefore, officials associated with the preparation of Vajpayee's speech at the UN General Assembly in New York on September 24 disclosed that India's stance on the treaty will be finally determined after Monday's talks.

"We feel the Singh-Talbott dialogue will break through many contentious issues, including the CTBT. If that happens, major changes can be expected in the prime minister's address," an external affairs ministry official told Rediff On The NeT.

He said the tenor and language of the resolutions on nuclear issues at the UN would also depend on the Singh-Talbott talks. "If the talks succeed, the US is expected to be less harsh on India," he said.

"India has agreed to the spirit of CTBT by voluntarily putting a moratorium on any further nuclear tests. We have also offered to convert our moratorium into an international obligation," he added.

More than four months after India conducted nuclear tests at Pokhran in Rajasthan, the government has virtually made up its mind to sign the CTBT. But it has been held back from actually signing the treaty by opposition from all the major parties and compulsions within the Bharatiya Janata Party, dominant partner in the coalition ruling the country.

Vajpayee's UN visit is, therefore, important because it will be the first occasion after the tests for the prime minister to press for a no-first-use agreement to be concluded among all nuclear-weapon states.

On nuclear disarmament, Vajpayee will call for multilateral negotiations leading to the early conclusion of a nuclear weapons convention prohibiting the development, deployment, stockpiling, transfer, and threat of use of nuclear weapons and providing for their eventual elimination.

But the most crucial aspect of Vajpayee's UN visit will be his meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief. The modalities of the secretary-level dialogue between India and Pakistan are expected to be finalised at this meeting.

The government anticipates that Kashmir will figure in UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's address to the General Assembly. But it is not perturbed as such references have occurred at every assembly.

Indian diplomats also expect Pakistan to raise the issue at the assembly and the Security Council members to clamour to offer mediation to find a lasting solution to the dispute.

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