India ready for ban on nuclear weapons: NSA

India is willing to negotiate a nuclear weapons convention leading to global non-discriminatory and verifiable elimination of nuclear weapons, National Security Advisor MK Narayanan has said in Munich.

India is willing to negotiate a nuclear weapons convention leading to global non-discriminatory and verifiable elimination of nuclear weapons, National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan has said in Munich.

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Addressing an international security conference in Munich Friday, the NSA said: “If this conference succeeds in not merely addressing the issue of nuclear reductions but also devise pathways to their elimination, this might well be the transforming moment for the global community.”

“Non-proliferation cannot be an end in itself, and has to be linked to effective nuclear disarmament. Nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation should be seen as mutually re-inforcing processes. Effective disarmament must enhance the security of all states and not merely that of a few,” he said while speaking on "Non-Proliferation, Arms Control and Future of Nuclear Weapons; Is Zero Possible?"

"Even today, India is perhaps the only nuclear weapons state to express its readiness to negotiate a Nuclear Weapons Convention leading to global, non-discriminatory and verifiable elimination of nuclear weapons."

Recalling former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's stark warning when he presented his action plan to the UN general assembly in 1988, Narayanan said it was by far the most comprehensive initiative for complete elimination of all nuclear weapons in stages by 2010.

As concrete steps towards this end, Narayanan mentioned reaffirmation of the unequivocal commitment of all states possessing nuclear weapons to the goal of complete elimination of nuclear weapons, reduction of the salience of nuclear weapons in security doctrines and adoption of measures to reduce nuclear dangers, including preventing the unintentional or accidental use of nuclear weapons.