'India cannot unilaterally pledge to wipe out nuclear arms'

CAIRO, FEB. 3. The External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, today said India cannot unilaterally commit itself to total elimination of weapons of mass destruction and warned that the world was becoming a stage for the destructive doctrine of jihad as foreign policy.

Outlining the country's security concerns in a presentation on `India's perspective on international and regional security issues' at the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs here, Mr. Singh, however, agreed that total elimination was the only solution for the danger posed by weapons of mass destruction.

He said national security must consider the continued relevance of weapons of mass destruction as a currency of power. They serve ironically not as fighting instruments but the purpose of deterrence, he said.

However, only the rational and responsible can be deterred. ``We have yet to find an answer for the factor of irrational response,'' he said, adding ``that is why for weapons of mass destruction, there is only one solution: universal, non- discriminatory and total elimination of all weapons of mass destruction from the face of the earth.''

``India remains committed to this goal and we will continue to pursue it untiringly. Like others, India too cannot do so unilaterally in a world of differentiated norms, of uneven and selective criteria of assessment of national security,'' he said.

- PTI

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Section  : International
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