India favours US stand on WMD

Reacting positively to President George Bush's statement that collective action was needed to check the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) India today said "fresh approaches" were needed to meet new challenges, but backed away from "going into specifics".

Just last week foreign minister Yashwant Sinha had demanded a probe by multilateral agencies to ascertain whether Pakistan nuclear scientist AQ Khan's passing on nuclear technology to third nations had compromised safety and whether this technology had gone into non-state hands.

The Pakistan foreign office had reacted strongly to the statement, with foreign minister Kasuri stating that Pakistan had taken action on the 'leak' and that no further action was required. The US had been non-committal on the issue of a probe.

Today, the Indian government reacted positively to President Bush's statement, interpreting it as endorsement of India's stand.

However, it was clear that it did not want to vitiate the current cordiality in India-Pakistan relations and was content to let the United States suggest ways in which proliferation of WMD, including in Pakistan, could be checked.

"We believe that meeting new proliferation challenges requires fresh approaches, pooling together the efforts and resources of the international community," the spokesman for the External Affairs ministry told reporters.

He said India welcomed multilateral consultations between all partners against proliferation on developing an effective framework.

Reacting to Bush's statement made yesterday, he said it "addresses major proliferation threats, which concern the entire international community".

"We welcome his emphasis on the imperative of collective action to check WMD proliferation. It is clear that the existing non-proliferation order is inadequate. Recent examples have shown that non-proliferation obligations have not always been treated with adequate seriousness," the spokesman said in the statements made last month by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and President Bush, the two leaders noted that both countries are partners in the war against terrorism and in controlling the proliferation of WMD and the means to deliver them.

"We see common interest, as well as expanding cooperation in countering proliferation as a key element in our strategic partnership with the U S," he said.

To another question, he said India's position on the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) "is very clear. We are not signing the treaty".

India believed that new proliferation challenges requires fresh thinking, he stressed. Asked whether India wanted Pakistan to be treated differently and as a proliferator, the spokesman was guarded.

"I am not going into specifics. We have a good statement by President Bush which contains several steps which are interesting and we will examine these in detail."

He said the official reaction was on the broad themes of the statement.