HVK Archives: India rejects rtificial deadlines for signing CTBT
India rejects rtificial deadlines for signing CTBT - The Observer
Press Trust of India
()
September 24, 1998
Title: India rejects rtificial deadlines for signing CTBT
Author: Press Trust of India
Publication: The Observer
Date: September 24, 1998
India has firmly rejected artificial deadlines the United States
has been trying to set for New Delhi to sign the CTBT by
attempting to link it to President Bill Clinton's visit to
India, it is learnt.
"Disapproval of such attempts (to sign the treaty)" was
expressed by Prime Minister A B Vajpayee's special emissary
Jaswant Singh when he met some of the representatives of Indian
community here. Singh was in the US capital for his fifth round
of talks with the US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott.
According to sources, Singh told them that India will sign the
CTBT when it is convinced that it is in New Delhi's security
interest, not because Clinton will or will not come to India.
Right now, Singh reportedly told the community representatives,
because of these artificial deadlines, e.g. saying that India
must give its decision by the middle of September, "it is going
nowhere."
If India decides to accept the CTBT, it will be on its merits,
not because of the President coming to India or not coming, he
is said to have added.
Singh also noted that no US President has come to India since
the Jimmy Carter visit and it must happen in that context. The
tactics of the anti-proliferation lobby to establish a link
between the President's visit and CTBT only cause a lot of
needless frustration.
India desires very good relations with the United States but it
will not be pushed into a corner, Singh said.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Senator Jesse Helms has promised to do his best to see that
sanctions against India are lifted and Indo-US ties are back on
track.
Helms gave this assurance to Jaswant Singh at an informal
meeting here on Tuesday, sources close to the talks said.
At the 10-minute meeting, Helms, who has disapproved of the US
administration's avowedly pro-China stance, said that he wanted
to take a lead in rebuilding relationships between governments
and business communities of the two countries.
The sources quoted the Senator, who is a very influential figure
on Capitol Hill, as saying he was glad that both countries were
talking and that very soon he would take a lead in lifting
sanctions against India.
Explaining the rationale behind India's recent nuclear tests,
Singh told Helms that they were conducted to meet the country's
security needs and were in exercise of "strategic autonomy."
Helms, whose anti-nuclear stance is rather well known, had
earlier criticised the tests but has of late expressed a greater
appreciation of New Delhi's stand on the issue.
According to the sources, Singh also pointed out that India had
already declared a moratorium on further testing and expressed
readiness to make that a de jure commitment.
The meeting, convened at the initiative of leading Indian
Americans here, was attended among others by Foreign Secretary K
Raghunath and Indian Ambassador to the US Naresh Chandra and
republican Senator Rod Grams and democrats Paul Sarbanes and
Charles Robb besides several notable Indian Americans, Sekhar
Tiwari Swadesh Chatterjee and Krishna Srinivas.
According to the sources, Singh also asked the senators to help
put Indo-US ties back on track.
Bilateral ties received a severe setback after the US sharply
criticised India's tests ignoring New Delhi's security concerns
and demanded that India accede to the CTBT unconditionally and
slapped economic sanctions.
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