NPT, CTBT - Reasons for India’s refusal to sign

NPT, CTBT – Reasons for India’s refusal to sign

Q. What is NPT and CTBT? Why India refuse to sign them?

- NPT- Non-Proliferation Treaty , is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament.

3 pillars

- First pillar: non-proliferation
- Second pillar: disarmament
- Third pillar: peaceful use of nuclear energy

- Opened for signature in 1968, the Treaty entered into force in 1970.

- Non-signatory India, Pakistan((Confirmed nuclear powers) and Israel(long-standing policy of deliberate ambiguity)

Why India refused to sign NPT?

1. NPT categorizes the world in 2 ways Nuclear weapon state that tested nuclear bombs before 1st January 1967 (P5 -US, Russia, China, UK, France) and non nuclear weapon.

2. NPT is a unfair treaty to the non-nuclear weapons states as it says that those who have nuclear weapons have no obligation to give them up while others are not allowed to have them.

3. India is committed to nuclear non-proliferation, but does not want to endorse such a biased treaty.

4. Although it calls for nuclear disarmament, no fixed timelines have been mentioned.

5. China has allegedly violated the treaty by proliferating knowledge to Pakistan.

6. Our security is threatened until these five countries completely dismantle their nuclear arsenal.

CTBT (Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty)

- Test-Ban Treaty by which states agree to ban all nuclear explosions in all environments, for military or civilian purposes. It was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 1996.

- Israel and US have signed but not ratified it while India and Pakistan have not signed it.

Why India refused to sign CTBT?

India finds CTBT a threat to national security because of its -

1. Discriminatory in nature as US which has already conducted more than 2000 tests suddenly realizes that here was no need to test nuclear devices any more.

2. No time-bound disarmament schedule for nuclear weapon states

3. CTBT would not help towards nuclear disarmament since it only banned nuclear explosive testing, but not other activities related to nuclear weapons, such as sub-critical (non-nuclear explosive) experiments, or computer simulations.