US seeks India's support on draft global treaty

Washington, May 19 : The Bush administration has expressed the hope that India will support the draft global treaty to ban production of fissile materials introduced in Geneva.

''India is one of those countries we hope can come out and support the text that we have laid down. I don't think we have a final signal one way or the other on it,'' State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters here yesterday.

He was referring to the draft global treaty the United States presented in Geneva yesterday seeking to ban the production of fissile material, plutonium and uranium, used in making nuclear weapons.

Acting assistant secretary of state for international security and non-proliferation Stephen Rademaker outlined details of the proposal to the 65-member United Nations Conference on Disarmament in Geneva and expressed the hope that a final treaty on this could be completed by the end of this year.

Mr McCormack described the proposal as "a good text" and said,''We hope that everybody will agree to it and the US thought it was a positive step.'' When asked why the administration chose to draft the treaty and if there was any significance in the timing of the proposal, Mr McCormack said,'' We think it's a good idea. We think it's beneficial for us as well as for the international non-proliferation regime.'' ''We have just got to the point now where all the elements of the US government are comfortable with the proposal that we've laid down. Four of the five permanent members of the Security Council currently have voluntarily fissile material cutoffs. I think China is the only one who does not at this point. Ours has been in place since 1998.'' He said the issue has been a source of concern among various members of the international community for some time.

Meanwhile, official sources told UNI here that the proposed treaty would also help tone down criticism in the US Congress and the non-proliferation lobby that the India-US nuclear deal, which would give New Delhi access to nuclear energy technology, would somehow enhance its weapons production if there were no curbs.

The main criticism in the US Congress is that the Bush administration failed to get an effective commitment from India to stop fissile material production in exchange for the nuclear technology.

One of the major concerns expressed against the nuke deal from American non-proliferation experts is that the agreement does not set any limits to India's ability to expand its nuclear weapons arsenal, including fissile material production, which could trigger an arms race in the region.

UNI

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