The three neighbours — India, Pakistan and China — may have their differences on nuclear arsenals, but former Union minister and Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar says that he is making efforts to bring experts from the three nations together for a Track-II trilateral dialogue. It is not for the first time that an effort at non-governmental dialogue in the nuclear arena involving the three countries is being made.
However, it is noteworthy that Mr Aiyar heads an informal group constituted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in August 2010 which gave its suggestions to the government on how the ideas contained in the Rajiv Gandhi Action Plan for a Nuclear Weapons Free and Non-violent Order can be carried forward.
Mr Aiyar hopes to carry forward India’s long-term advocacy of nuclear disarmament and is in talks with both Pakistani and Chinese experts for a Track-II trilateral dialogue. Speaking here on Friday evening, he said: “There is already an official dialogue on CBMs (confidence-building measures) bilaterally with both these countries.” However, to consider how to undertake moves for the global elimination of nuclear weapons was important, he added.
This, he said, will be done keeping in mind the “very important buzzwords” of the step being “universal, time-bound, phased and verifiable”.
He added, “All these are words of very great significance in the discourse of disarmament and we’d like to see, along with Pakistan and China but off the governmental track, how we could concert our positions.”
The seven-member informal group gave its report to the PM in August 2011.
Meeting with the group’s members here on Friday, external affairs minister S.M. Krishna reiterated what has been India’s position all along — that nuclear disarmament continues to be an important element of India’s foreign policy at multilateral fora, including the UN, NAM (Non-aligned Movement) and the Conference on Disarmament). He noted the report’s value lies in the fact that “it stresses that there is no contradiction between India having nuclear weapons and its support for global nuclear disarmament”.
The informal group’s report has detailed 19 India-specific reasons on why its feels that 2012 should “mark India’s re-emergence as a leading champion of nuclear disarmament”. It also notes that no other country is as threatened as India is due to the growing arsenal of nuclear weapons in its neighbourhood.
Mr Aiyar, who heads to Pakistan early next month to deliver a lecture on the possibilities of Pakistan and India cooperating with respect to global nuclear disarmament, further said that disagreements between the two (in this arena) were really only with each other. “In so far as the world is concerned, there is perhaps a far greater measure of congruence between the India and Pakistani positions than we’ve suspected. This is perhaps an appropriate juncture to bring it up,” he added.