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India wants global meet of nuke powers

India favours a global conference of nuclear powers on preventing the accidental use of nuclear weapons and leading to the prohibition of their use, Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh said.

He was asked at a media conference yesterday about a Pakistani suggestion to the General Assembly on Wednesday that the United Nations convene a nuclear powers conference to promote strategic restraint in south Asia.

''I don't believe that such a conference should be limited to south Asia,'' he said. ''I don't believe strategic restraint should be limited to south Asia. The reality is altogether different. India has stood for and has demonstrated restraint, so I think my own suggestion was the better one.''

In his address made to the General Assembly on Wednesday, he said, ''India is the only nuclear weapons state ready to negotiate a nuclear weapons convention that will prohibit forever the development, production, stockpiling, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons and provide for the stockpiling of all existing weapons under international verification.

''If this can only be a step-by-step process, the first step at a technical level is for all countries possessing nuclear weapons to undertake measures that will reduce the dangers of and provide added safeguards against any unintended or accidental use.''

Coupled with that would be the 'political step of re-orienting nuclear doctrines' toward a no-first-use, then a no-use policy, he said.

In response to a question, he denied that India and Pakistan were in an arms race and said Pakistan's harsh criticism of India's policies, especially in Kashmir, sprang from 'compulsive hostility'.

The next government of India, scheduled to be elected in September-October election, would make the major decisions on whether or not to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, he said.

UNI

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