US asks India, Pak, Israel to sign NPT

7 May 2009, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: The US wants India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). “Universal adherence to NPT — including by India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea — remains a fundamental objective of the US,” Rose Gottemoeller, assistant secretary of state said in her opening remarks at the third session of the preparatory committee for the 2010 NPT Review Conference being held at the UN headquarters in New York.

President Obama, who has repeatedly spelt out his commitment to non-proliferation goals through the implementation of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and NPT, maintained that “NPT framework is sound: Countries with nuclear weapons will move toward disarmament, countries without nuclear weapons will not acquire them, and all countries can have access to peaceful nuclear energy.’’ India has always insisted that nuclear disarmament had to involve ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ and cannot be meant for powers that are just acquiring nuclear arsenal.

Ms Gottemoeller maintained that India was coming closer to the non-proliferation regime due to its willingness to negotiate a fissile material cutoff treaty and export controls. She also cited the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal as an example of India coming closer to the non-proliferation regime. “So I would say that India is coming closer to the non-proliferation regime, and that too is an important goal of the US foreign policy,” she was quoted as saying.

At the same time, the US’s push for NPT will definitely take in concerns of another non-signatory: Israel, which has also refused to sign NPT. Israel has remained silent on its nuclear armament capabilities and the US till now has not revealed if it had any plan to push Israel to sign NPT.

Mr Obama’s position on NPT does not come as any surprise to New Delhi but it adds to the general unease about the changing shape of Indo-US ties. Mr Obama’s comments on outsourcing and reference to shifting jobs out of Bangalore to US cities is adding to the growing unease that Indo-US ties could be heading on a downward trajectory.

Former US ambassador Robert Blackwill had recently said that there is a substantial change in the US policy towards India and that it would take a lot of work to ensure that there is no downturn in ties.

The Obama administration’s interest in NPT also stems from the developments in Pakistan where the threat of the Taliban getting control of nuclear weapons has now become a worry. “While we agree on this framework, we must strengthen NPT to deal effectively with the threat of nuclear weapons and nuclear terrorism,’’ Mr Obama said.

Last month, Mr Obama had pledged to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons — which India has no problems with. There is renewed hope that global disarmament efforts would be revived with US and Russia starting negotiations on a new treaty to reduce their nuclear stockpiles.