IRELAND in its current capacity as President of the Council of the European Union yesterday welcomed the United Nations endorsement of a global nuclear test ban treaty. However, the Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Spring, added that this was only one step towards nuclear disarmament.
"This treaty is not the end of the process," Mr Spring's statement said. "There is a need for further systematic and progressive efforts towards nuclear disarmament and non proliferation."
In New Delhi, India, the mains opponent of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in its current form dug in its heels, saying it would hold fast against the accord just as the nation's spiritual founder Mahatma Gandhi had stood up to British rule.
"We shall not sign the treaty," the Foreign Minister, Mr Inder Kumar Gujral, told the upper house of parliament, where deputies expressed their approval with the loud thumping of desks.
India blocked adoption of the CTBT by disarmament negotiators in Geneva last month. On Tuesday, it was one of only three United Nations member states which voted against the accord banning nuclear explosions in the atmosphere, underground or in any other environment.
By a 158 to three vote, the UN General Assembly called for the accord to be open for signature by individual nations.
India has insisted the treaty commit the five declared nuclear powers (Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States) to a timetable for dismantling their arsenals. But New Delhi has been piqued by a provision that would require it, along with 43 other countries, to ratify the accord before the pact could take effect.
The Indian Foreign Minister, who has repeatedly called the CTBT a "charade", said his country had a long standing history of withstanding pressure.
India detonated a nuclear device in 1974 but says it has never built the bomb and has no plans to do so. Its strategic doctrine has been to keep the option to build nuclear weapons.
Analysts scoffed at President Bill Clinton's remark that "I believe we can find a way for the Indians to have their security concerns met".
"Clinton cannot provide security to my country," said Brig Vijai Nair, executive director of the Forum for Strategic and Security Studies. "Is this a new form of imperialism coming?"
China welcomed the treaty.
"This move will surely contribute to the advancement of the nuclear disarmament process, the prevention of nuclear weapons proliferation band promotion of international peace and security," the Foreign Ministry spokesman Mr Shen Guofang, told the official Xinhua newsagency.
On July 29th, China conducted what it said would be its last nuclear test before a self imposed moratorium that took effect the following day. It was the last declared nuclear power to announce a halt to testing.
Beijing, which usually avoids pressing other countries to take part in international accords, took the rare step of hinting that India should end its opposition.
China hoped the treaty would be signed as soon as possible and would be "acceded to and honoured worldwide," Mr Shen said, in a clear call to India.
Britain and France both said they would sign the test ban treaty on September 24th. The French President, Mr Jacques Chirac, who caused a furore a year ago with French atomic tests in the South Pacific, hailed the test ban treaty as a turning point in the arms race.