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N-proliferation: India cautions UN
Congressmen warn against hasty decision on Indo-US N-deal
India offers more relief to Pak
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Natwar meets Shaukat, Iranian Vice-President
Israel pounds Gaza Strip
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N-proliferation: India cautions UN
United Nations, October 27 Turning a blind eye to “supposed allies and targeting supposed adversaries” can only “undermine” effort to contain such weapons, India’s Ambassador to the United Nations Nirupam Sen said without naming any country. “Such an effort must remain equally vigilant against proliferation by both states and non-state actors,” he said yesterday, participating in the council debate on threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts. Stressing that no country or society was immune or indifferent to the global phenomenon of terrorism, he called for early adoption of a comprehensive convention on international terrorism which India had initiated almost a decade ago. He pointed out that the world leaders at their summit in September, too, had stressed the need for adoption of the convention during the current session of the General Assembly. “Every effort has been made to narrow down the existing differences and to address the issue of the legal regime under the draft convention and international humanitarian law. In situation where international humanitarian law applies, it is important that the legal balance must not be altered,” he said.
— PTI |
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Congressmen warn against hasty decision on
KEY Congressional leaders have warned that they will not take a “hasty” decision on the US-India civilian nuclear agreement and criticised the Bush Administration for not providing them with sufficient information on the pact.
Congressman Henry Hyde, Chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said at a hearing of the panel on Wednesday he was surprised at the optimism exuded by the administration that congressional support for the agreement “is broad and that our consent is virtually guaranteed.” “I do not understand how these statements could be made with the Congress having yet to be fully consulted,”he said. Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns told the Asia Society in New York earlier this month that once a plan to separate India’s civil and military nuclear programmes has been “clearly enunciated and once it has been committed to by the Indian government … it will be a short time before the US Congress enacts the necessary legislative changes to bring this into being.” In a strongly worded statement, Mr Hyde, who, like President George W. Bush, belongs to the Republican Party, said: “Given the primacy of this subject, and the many unknowns surrounding the overall agreement, there is much work to be done before that assent can be given.” Mr Hyde, noting that he had not come to any conclusions regarding the merits of this agreement, said it would be “grossly irresponsible for this committee and for the Congress as a whole to act with unnecessary haste regarding a subject which can bear no false steps.” Congressman Tom
Lantos, the committee’s senior Democrat, agreed that there was no hurry to reach a decision on the deal. “Approval and implementation may take considerable time in both hemispheres,” he said. The Congress must agree to amend US laws before the civilian nuclear agreement becomes a reality. Mr Hyde pointed out that a similar agreement with China took 13 years to come fully into force. “But for India, this potential cooperation carries with it a special significance as it cannot proceed without our restructuring long-standing US and global nonproliferation policy,” he said. Members of Congress have been piqued by the haste with which the Bush Administration announced the pact. Mr Hyde noted the situation “is both strange and unusual in that the Indian authorities know more about this important proposal than we in the Congress.” Taking the Bush Administration to task, he said it was important to keep in mind that, “although the Executive Branch has wide latitude to conclude agreements with countries, it is the province of the Congress to make or amend laws.” The Bush Administration has yet to present Congress with its proposal. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said before this was done India needs to take several steps, including the separation of its civilian and military nuclear programs. “These are preconditions for us actually presenting this agreement to the Congress,” he said at the department. In testimony before the committee, David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, cautioned that attempts to separate military and civil nuclear programs in the five internationally acknowledged nuclear weapon states have been “fraught with difficulty.” “In practice, the effective separation of military and civil nuclear programs has required additional steps that are largely absent from the US-India agreement,” he said. Four of the five proliferation experts who testified before the committee said the deal undermined the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty but this could be avoided if the deal was amended. Robert J.
Einhorn, senior adviser at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said the deal can be transformed from a “net nonproliferation loss to a net nonproliferation gain” if India, among other things, agreed to stop the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons. “Without a moratorium on fissile material production, the US-India deal could actually facilitate the growth of India’s nuclear weapons capability,” he said. Accusing India of misusing plutonium produced in the Canadian-supplied CIRUS research reactor for its nuclear weapons programme, Leonard
Spector, deputy director of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of Studies, asked: “Why would the US consider opening civil nuclear cooperation with a state that has a clear history of abusing agreements covering such transfers?” Henry Sokolski of the Non-proliferation Policy Education Center told members of the congressional panel: “Under no circumstances should Congress allow itself to be rushed” on the deal. A supporter of the agreement, Neil
Joeck, senior fellow at the Center for Global Security Research, said changing or amending the law would “not mean that we or the rest of the nonproliferation community will incautiously transfer sensitive nuclear technology; it also would not mean that we or other states will stop working to further global nonproliferation objectives; it will not be the death knell for the NSG [Nuclear Suppliers Group].” “The new partnership with India provides an opportunity to increase global security while adapting our nonproliferation policy to new conditions,” Mr Joeck said. |
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Natwar meets Shaukat, Iranian Vice-President
New Delhi, October 27 Mr Natwar Singh also discussed the Indian contributions, already made and in the pipeline, for quake-relief operations, diplomatic sources said today. The meeting, held on the margins of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Moscow, coincides with India’s announcement of $ 25 million worth of quake relief to Pakistan. It also assumes significance as a high-level multi-ministerial official Indian delegation reaches Islamabad tomorrow evening for talks relating to partial opening of the Line of Control for more effective disbursement of quake relief. The Pakistani position on opening of the LoC will be formally announced only after the October 29 talks with the Indian delegation, led by Mr Dilip Sinha, Joint Secretary (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran) in the Ministry of External Affairs. The Indian delegation is going to Pakistan at the insistence of Islamabad, though the Indian side was of the view that the decision could have been taken by talks through diplomatic channels. Meanwhile, Mr Natwar Singh also had a series of important bilateral talks in Moscow with leaders of Iran, China and Russia where the current Iran crisis dominated the discussions. Mr Natwar Singh met the Vice-President of Iran, Mr Pervez Dawoodi, yesterday evening where the former reiterated India’s keen desire to promote long-term energy cooperation with Iran. On the Iran nuclear issue, Mr Natwar Singh emphasised that India would wish to avoid any reference to the UN Security Council and that the matter should be amicably resolved within the purview of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) itself. Mr Natwar Singh also met Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao last evening wherein the two leaders recalled the progress achieved during Premier Wen’s landmark visit to India in April this year. Premier Wen emphasised the importance of the long-term significance of strategic cooperation that has been established between India and China and said the two countries should persevere with the vision that had been set out by their leadership. The External Affairs Minister also met Russian President Vladimir Putin, which included a tete-a-tete between the External Affairs Minister and President Putin and also delegation-level talks. Besides an overall review of bilateral relations, multilateral cooperation as well as international issues, the two sides also discussed the forthcoming visit of Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee to Moscow as well as that of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in December this year. |
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India offers more relief to Pak
Geneva/New Delhi, October 27 “We have committed $ 25 million for the quake relief activities in
Pakistan. The initiative has been welcomed by the global community,”
Statistics and Programme Implementation Minister Oscar Fernandes said. Mr Fernandes is here to participate in a meeting of international donors for quake relief of Pakistan. Pakistan has, meanwhile, sought quotations from Indian tent manufacturers to purchase tents for quake-affected people. Minister (Press) at the Pakistan High Commission Rai Riaz Hussain said even though Pakistan was the largest producer and exporter of tents, the earthquake had caught the country unaware. A delegation of businessmen from Pakistan had visited India to purchase tents, said Mr Hussain, adding that an order of 20,000 tents had already been placed with an Indian manufacturer and a couple of more agreements were being worked out. A report from Islamabad
said Pakistan had said it would welcome medical relief supplies from India at the LoC. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tasneem Aslam told The News that “It has to be understood in New Delhi that on Pakistan’s side of the LoC, relief work is in full swing and those affected in the Neelum and Jhelum valleys were now getting the required aid.” |
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Israel pounds Gaza Strip
Jerusalem, October 27 “We will not accept under any circumstances a continuation of terrorism. Therefore our activities will be broad and non-stop until they halt terrorism,” Mr Sharon said before a meeting with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
— PTI |
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New Delhi, October 27
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