Aiyar for talks with China, Pak on n-disarmament

Pushing for an atomic weapons free world, Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar on Friday said he was in discussions with experts from Pakistan and China to launch a Track-II process on universal nuclear disarmament.

"I am in discussions with Chinese and Pakistani experts to have a trialogue on universal nuclear disarmament," on a discussion on the 'Report of the Prime Minister's Group on Nuclear Disarmament'.

Aiyar, who chairs an informal group which prepared the report, said he wanted a purely intellectual track to pursue universal, time-bound, phased and verifiable disarmament.

The former Union minister would be delivering a lecture in Pakistan very soon on the possibility of cooperation in nuclear disarmament.

He said there was "far greater congruence" between India and Pakistan on issues like global nuclear disarmament.

"The disagreements are only with each other," Aiyar said pointing out that it would be difficult to differentiate between the speeches of Indian and Pakistani diplomats on disarmament at multi-lateral fora.

He said the Rajiv Gandhi Action Plan on disarmament had bipartisan support in the country as the NDA, during its six-year rule, had never repudiated the former Prime Minister's vision.

Earlier, Aiyar also met external affairs minister SM Krishna who said that the value of the Report was in wider disemmination within the country to generate discussion and debate about universal nuclear disarmament.

Krishna also offered to support a seminal under the aegis of the Indian Council of World Affairs on the theme of global universal disarmament to coincide with Rajiv Gandhi's birth anniversary on August 20.