India has taken a principled stand on CTBT: Krishna

External Affairs Minister SM Krishna has said that there is no scope for change in our position on the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty unless a number of other “developments” take place to address the concerns.

External Affairs Minister SM Krishna has said that the country has taken a “principled” stand on the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and there is no scope for change in its position unless a number of other “developments” take place to address the concerns.

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This comes after a high-level conference on disarmament in United Nations on Thursday, addressed by UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon, asked India and eight other countries to ratify the agreement so that it comes into force.

“India has taken a position and we don’t see any reason for changing our stand, Krishna told journalists. “We have taken a principled stand and and so the question of India revisiting it stand depends on a number of other developments that would address our concerns,” he added.

Earlier, Moon said that “the CTBT is a fundamental building block for a free world of nuclear weapons”. “By establishing a global norm against testing, the CTBT has made a significant contribution to the world community’s efforts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and to promote nuclear disarmament,” he added.