New Delhi, May 31: India on Sunday ruled out signing the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty ( NPT). Dismissing a UN suggestion in this regard, New Delhi said it could not be party to an agreement that it regarded as “ discriminatory”. “ Our position on NPT has been clearly articulated before. We want complete, verifiable and universal disarmament,” a source said.
The UN had on May 28 asked India, Pakistan and Israel to join the NPT and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty without further delay and pre- conditions. The call came at the end of the month- long 2010 NPT review conference in the US. None of the three countries had attended the conference.
Issues relating to non- proliferation are also likely to be discussed in the first India- US strategic dialogue, chaired by external affairs minister S. M. Krishna and US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, in Washington on June 3.
—Agencies