US making all out efforts to persuade India on CTBT -- Rohlfing

US making all out efforts to persuade India on CTBT -- Rohlfing
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Mumbai, May 2: The US was making all efforts to convince India that the CTBT was not discriminatory, and the two countries had reached a better understanding of their respective positions on the treaty through dialogue, Joan Rohlfing, special advisor to the US ambassador in India, said here on Tuesday.

"I assure you that US is making all efforts to show that it (CTBT) is not discriminatory. Although recently we have acquired greater understanding through dialogue, but not as much as we have done with China," Rohlfing said at a round-table discussion on US Foreign Policy and Nuclear Non-proliferation Issues in South Asia.

Rohlfing, who is in the country for the last eight months, is trying to persuade the Indian Government to become a signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

The US was `very serious' about total nuclear disarmament and was fulfilling its obligations under Article IV of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Rohlfing, who was earlier an advisor on national security issues to US Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, said.

The US had dismantled 13,000 nuclear warheads since 1989, scaled down its nuclear weapons infrastructure, adopted a moratorium on nuclear testing, signed the CTBT - awaiting ratification by the Senate - and was helping Russia and other successor states of the erstwhile Soviet Union reduce nuclear dangers, she said.