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NAM rebuffs Pak bid to censure Indian nuclear tests

In what is being considered a diplomatic victory for New Delhi, Pakistan was isolated at the just-concluded NAM ministerial meeting in Cartagena, Colombia, in its move to censure India for the recent nuclear tests conducted by it.

Official sources today said Pakistani minister of state for foreign affairs Siddique Kanju had criticised India for the nuclear tests in his speech, and sought to muster the support of the meeting, attended by 80 member-countries, but found little support.

''They (Pakistan) did not make any formal move because they realised they did not enjoy support,'' the sources said.

Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary K Raghunath, who briefed the press on the NAM meeting, said a majority of the member countries showed understanding of India's security concerns, which led it to conduct the nuclear tests. In bilateral meetings with Minister of State for External Affairs Vasundhara Raje, several foreign ministers appreciated India's stand on the nuclear issue.

Apart from Pakistan, only three countries -- Chile, Malaysia and Syria -- referred to the Indian nuclear tests in their statements. While Malaysian and Chilean foreign ministers spoke in general terms about nuclear testing, Syria criticised the Western countries for their ''double standards'' in not deploring a certain power in its region, which had undertaken similar tests.

Ten other countries simply referred to the new situation in South Asia following the Indian nuclear tests. These were: Botswana, Brazil, Iran, Lesotho, Panama, the Philippines, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Surinam and Thailand.

The foreign secretary said the outcome of the meeting was ''satisfactory'' for India, and the final communique reflected New Delhi's view on total global nuclear disarmament within a time-bound framework.

The relevant paragraph on global disarmament said: ''The right to own nuclear weapons is highly discriminatory, unstable and cannot be sustained''. It also called for an action plan to eliminate nuclear weapons in a time-bound framework.

Raghunath said the meeting reaffirmed NAM's position on global disarmament for which India has been forcefully working since the 1950s.

He said India's presence in NAM, with New Delhi acquiring a new status after the nuclear tests, had put the world body in a better position to argue for the goal of total nuclear disarmament in an effective manner. ''The voice of NAM should be taken seriously with India becoming a nuclear power.''

On the expansion of the UN Security Council, the meeting, in its communique, said NAM was grossly under-represented and the situation should be corrected by enlarging it to enhance its credibility and represent its international character.

NAM was of the view that any attempt to exclude members of the movement from enlargement would be unacceptable.

UNI

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