India has taken a principled stand on CTBT: Krishna

KRISHNA-CTBT
Betwa Sharma

United Nations, Sep 25 (PTI) External Affairs Minister
of India S M 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.

This comes after a high-level conference on disarmament
here 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. MORE PTI BS
SDE


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