• The India-UK Consultations on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation were held in New Delhi on February 4.

• Both sides held a key meeting during which both sides discussed developments in the field of disarmament and non-proliferation relating to nuclear, chemical and biological domain.

• The two sides also discussed outer space security-related matters, conventional weapons including AI in the military domain and multilateral export control regimes.

India endorses ‘no-first-use’ policy

• Nuclear weapons are the most dangerous weapons on earth. One can destroy a whole city, potentially killing millions, and jeopardising the natural environment and lives of future generations through its long-term catastrophic effects. The dangers from such weapons arise from their very existence. 

• Although nuclear weapons have only been used twice in warfare, about 12,500 reportedly remain in our world today and there have been over 2,000 nuclear tests conducted to date. Disarmament is the best protection against such dangers but achieving this goal has been a tremendously difficult challenge.

• India has a long-standing commitment to the goal of general and complete disarmament based on the principles of universality, non-discrimination and verification.

• The country has played an active role in the international community’s endeavours towards nuclear disarmament. As early as 1948, India called for limiting the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes only and the elimination of atomic weapons from national armaments. 

• India was the first country to call for a ban on nuclear testing in 1954. This was followed up by many other initiatives, for example, on the Partial Test Ban Treaty, and the call for international negotiations on nuclear non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. 

• In 1978, India proposed negotiations for an international convention that would prohibit the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons. This was followed by another initiative in 1982 calling for a ‘nuclear freeze’, that is  prohibition on the production of fissile material for weapons, on production of nuclear weapons, and related delivery systems

• In June 1988, the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi presented an action plan for a nuclear-weapons-free and non-violent world order to the Third Special Session on Disarmament of the General Assembly in June 1988. 

• The heart of the action plan was the elimination of all nuclear weapons, in three stages by 2010 and it emphasized nuclear disarmament that is global, universal and non-discriminatory in nature.

• India was compelled by considerations of national security to establish and adopt a policy of keeping its nuclear option open while it continued to work for global nuclear disarmament. 

• After demonstrating nuclear capability in 1974, India exercised an unparalleled restraint in not weaponising its nuclear capability. 

• It is relevant to recall, that during this period, when India voluntarily and totally desisted from testing, over 35,000 nuclear weapons were developed through a series of tests by states possessing nuclear weapons. 

• India has not signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). India has claimed that the CTBT is discriminatory because it favours “five nuclear weapon states” — the US, the UK, China, France and Russia — when it comes to fulfilling obligations for eliminating nuclear weapons. Instead, it wanted the CTBT to have a clause on complete nuclear disarmament in a time-bound manner because there are technological differences between the ‘have’ and ‘have not’ countries.

• India’s continued commitment to nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation was reflected in the voluntary measures announced by India after undertaking a limited series of underground nuclear tests in 1998. 

• India has declared that it will maintain credible minimum nuclear deterrent and will not engage in an arms race.

• India, as a responsible nuclear weapon State, as per its nuclear doctrine, has followed a policy of maintaining a credible minimum deterrence, based on a ‘no-first-use’ posture and ‘non-use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapon States’. India is prepared to convert these undertakings into multilateral legal arrangements.

• India believes that a global no-first-use agreement will engender strategic stability and reduce the danger of the accidental or unintended use of nuclear weapons.

• India remains the only State possessing nuclear weapons to call unambiguously for a Nuclear Weapons Convention to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons just as the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) have banned the other two categories of weapons of destruction. 

• India also submits annually to the UN General Assembly three resolutions — Convention on the prohibition of the use of nuclear weapons, Reducing Nuclear Danger and Measures to prevent terrorists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction.

• In October 2006, India presented to the First Committee of the UN General Assembly a Working Paper on Nuclear Disarmament. The Working Paper underlined that progress towards the goal of nuclear disarmament will require a climate of mutual confidence in the international community to conclude universal, non-discriminatory and verifiable prohibition of nuclear weapons leading to their complete elimination.

• Further, India shares the non-proliferation objectives of the international community. India has a comprehensive, stringent and effective system of export controls in line with the highest international standards. 

• Global recognition of India’s impeccable non-proliferation record was evident in the opening of international civil nuclear cooperation with India in 2008.

• India abstained on the draft Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) that was sought to be adopted at the UNGA session on ATT in April 2013, since the draft fell well short of the expectations that the text be clear, balanced, implementable and able to attract universal adherence. 

• India’s consistent position has been to have an ATT that makes a real impact on illicit trafficking in conventional arms and their illicit use by terrorists and non-State actors, while safeguarding the principle of right of all States to procure weapons for their security needs.

• India is a State Party to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention and Chemical Weapons Convention and has an exemplary record in their implementation. 

• Specifically, India, in line with its obligations under the CWC has destroyed all its chemical weapons stockpiles within the Convention mandated time frame under international (OPCW) verification. 

• India has maintained a voluntary moratorium on nuclear explosive testing. India supports negotiations in the Conference on Disarmament of an Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT) that is universal, non-discriminatory and verifiable. India also supports international efforts to strengthen the present international legal framework to ensure the safety and security of space assets and to prevent the placement of weapons in outer space. 

• India remains strongly committed to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) which offers the only forum of a universal character that brings together all the main producers and users of major conventional weapons, thus ensuring that the instruments that emerge have a greater prospect of making a meaningful impact on the ground.

• India supports upholding and strengthening global non-proliferation objectives.

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