The summit is not going to be country specific as the discussions will be in the global context. But Prime Minister Manmohan Singh put the Pakistan factor in perspective to make out a case for greater impetus on securing nuclear material through physical protection and legal mechanisms.
India sees the Washington summit and its associated preparatory process as important elements in strengthening international resolve to cooperate on nuclear security and supporting the expanded use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
‘This will be to India’s benefit given our concerns on terrorism as well as our interest in the expansion of civil nuclear energy’, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said in New Delhi on April 4.
Since 2002 India has been piloting a resolution at the UN on preventing terrorists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction. Delhi is also active at the IAEA on setting and enforcing standards on physical protection of nuclear material and facilities as well as on combating illicit trafficking in nuclear material.
India is a party to Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material, its 2005 amendment and other key instruments of global architecture of nuclear security.
Delhi expects the Washington meet to substantially strengthen to global nuclear security safeguards.
Excerpts from Nirupama Rao’s interaction with the media
Question: What exactly is nuclear terrorism? Is it the yellowcake? Is it the material that comes out from processing? What exactly is it?
Foreign Secretary: The Summit, as we have prepared for it, focuses on the threat of nuclear terrorism rising from clandestine proliferation, from the illicit trafficking of nuclear weapons and diversion of nuclear materials. That is really the focus when you talk of nuclear terrorism.
Question: What are we taking to the Nuclear Security Summit in terms of ideas? There is also talk of India planning to set up an International Nuclear Security Centre. Basically what are the ideas we are taking to the Summit?
Foreign Secretary: The last issue that you have referred to is a good idea. We need to develop it further. You have to wait for the outcome of the Summit.
Question: Madam, you spoke about illicit trafficking. Are we ready for joining some kind of a PSI initiative?
Foreign Secretary: The Summit is not about the PSI, let me say that. And let me go back a little just to give you a little sense of the context in which we are meeting. President Obama made his speech at Prague in April 2009 when he described nuclear terrorism as the most immediate and extreme threat to global security. Now what the Summit focuses on, and what our discussions and the outcome document will in all likelihood focus on, is the national responsibility to secure nuclear materials while strengthening the international framework of such cooperation by adhering to multilateral instruments and norms.
Question: …In the run up to the preparation for Washington, did India or any of the other 42 countries raise with the United States that this initiative would be more effective if every country which has material that requires physical protection takes part in the Summit? If not, why not?
Foreign Secretary: The issue did not really come up I must confess, during the preparations. But when we talk about nuclear security and the threat of nuclear terrorism, we are referring to it in a global context. All responsible members of the world community, international community, have a stake in ensuring that we have comprehensive nuclear security.
Question: Since you speak of responsible members of the international community having a stake in nuclear security, does that by implication mean that Iran is not a responsible member?
Foreign Secretary: No, I never said that. Iran is a country with which we have bilateral relations which go back many, many years. It is a substantive relationship. We regard Iran as a very important country in the region and a country with which we have had, as I said, extensive bilateral relations and dialogue and cooperation. It is a responsible country.
