India has said it was "deeply worried" over the potential nexus between clandestine proliferation of nuclear weapons and terrorism and favoured "transparent verification procedures" to prevent such materials falling in dangerous hands.
Speaking at the Global Zero Summit in Paris, the prime minister's Special Envoy Shyam Saran pitched for a "more urgent time frame" for achieving nuclear disarmament.
"India is deeply worried about the potential nexus between clandestine proliferation and terrorism and the ever-present danger of such weapons or vulnerable nuclear materials falling into the hands of jihadi and non-State actors," he said addressing the summit this week.
Saran termed nuclear proliferation as a "specific threat to India".
"However, over the long term, it is also our view that it is only through the complete elimination of nuclear weapons and by putting in place universally applicable, non-discriminatory and fully transparent verification procedures, that we can fully prevent and deny nuclear materials from falling into dangerous hands," he said.
Welcoming the lead taken by the US and Russia in reducing their nuclear arsenal, Saran said, "We must remain mindful of security trends, including relating to the improvement, accretion and deployment of strategic armaments, in the Asia-Pacific region."
Sharing India's thinking on Global Zero, Saran said it was the only state to declare unequivocally that, in its perception, its security will be enhanced and not diminished in a world free of nuclear weapons.
"This is important because it lends credibility to our consistent advocacy of nuclear disarmament and our willingness to engage, without delay, in multilateral negotiations on
Nuclear Weapons Convention prohibiting the development, production, stockpiling and the use of nuclear weapons and on their time-bound destruction, leading to the global, non-discriminatory and verifiable elimination of nuclear weapons," he said.
Saran underlined India's commitment to its voluntary unilateral moratorium on nuclear explosive testing and said it was prepared to negotiate a verifiable Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty in the conference on disarmament in Geneva.
"We are not a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and cannot respond to calls for universal adherence to that Treaty as a non-nuclear weapon State," he said.
Saran noted India's unmatched non-proliferation record over the past more than half a century which was instrumental in persuading the US and the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group to re-engage with India in international civil nuclear commerce under an India-specific Safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency. PTI
