)
Addressing a high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly on Nuclear Disarmament here yesterday, Minister for External Affairs Salman Khurshid said India is a responsible nuclear power with a credible minimum deterrence policy and a posture of no-first use.
"We refuse to participate in an arms race, including a nuclear arms race. We are prepared to negotiate a global No-First-Use treaty and our proposal for a convention banning the use of nuclear weapons remains on the table," he said.
Khurshid said there is need to galvanise political will and help channel collective global efforts towards the goal of ridding the world of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).
"Progressive steps are needed for the de-legitimisation of nuclear weapons paving the way for their complete elimination," he said.
Khurshid invoked Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence and said: "More than six decades later, it remains our collective challenge to craft a nuclear weapon free and non-violent world order".
"India remains convinced that its security would be strengthened in a nuclear weapon free and non-violent world order. This conviction is based both on principle as well as pragmatism.
"We believe that the goal of nuclear disarmament can be achieved through a step-by-step process underwritten by a universal commitment and an agreed multilateral framework that is global and non-discriminatory," he said.
Khurshid referred to then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's proposal to the UN in 1988 of a comprehensive Action Plan for a nuclear weapon free and non-violent world order, which if implemented would have rid the world of nuclear weapons by 2008.
