India ready to negotiate FMCT that is non-discriminatory: PM

New Delhi, Oct 20 (PTI) Favouring non-discriminatory
universal nuclear disarmament, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh Tuesday said India is ready to negotiate the Fissile
Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT) which is multilateral,
non-discriminatory and verifiable.

Addressing a conference of top commanders of the three
defence services here, he said it needs to be ensured that
discriminatory standards and approaches in global disarmament
are not perpetuated.
"There is a revival of interest on nuclear disarmament
and non-proliferation issues. We welcome this because India
was a pioneer in the campaign for a nuclear weapons free
world," Singh said.
He was apparently referring to the push being given by
the US under the Obama Administration to non-proliferation
initiatives like Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and FMCT.
At the behest of the US, the UN Security Council recently
adopted a resolution asking all nuclear weapon states to sign
the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
"We are ready to negotiate a Fissile Material Cut-off
Treaty which is multilateral, non-discriminatory and
verifiable," Singh said while noting that "as a responsible
nuclear weapon state, we wish to see nuclear disarmament that
is global, non-discriminatory and universal in nature".
India has maintained that it will not sign the NPT in its
present form as it is flawed and discriminatory. PTI MS
DDC