India for talks on n-weapons free world

UNITED NATIONS, OCT. 7. Reaffirming its commitment to work for non- discriminatory, universal and verifiable nuclear disarmament, India has called for multilateral negotiations aimed at creating a world free of atomic weapons.

Regretting that its efforts for nuclear disarmament over the past five decades had been disregarded by nuclear-weapons States, the Indian delegate at the UN, Mr. Saleem Shervani, said New Delhi was ready to strengthen its commitment of no-first-use of nuclear weapons by entering into bilateral or multilateral agreements.

Addressing the UN General Assembly's Disarmament and International Security Committee on Friday, he rejected the arguments by major powers in favour of retention of nuclear weapons and questioned the need for keeping thousands of atomic weapons on ``hair-trigger alert'' in the post cold war era.

``New doctrines and justifications for continued retention of nuclear weapons have been developed and nuclear sharing arrangements maintained. Such an approach is contrary to the principle of equal and legitimate security for all,'' he said.

He stressed the need to tackle the issue of missile proliferation through ``genuine multilateralism,'' and said selective approaches through alliances or missile defence system was not the answer.

- PTI

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Section  : International
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