India enunciated seven concrete steps towards achieving the goal of a nuclear weapon-free world in the spirit of the Rajiv Gandhi Action Plan, without emphasising a very strict time frame which marked that plan presented to the third UN Special Session on Disarmament 20 years ago. The Indian list of suggestions to the Conference on Disarmament has its own logical consistency and elements of credibility creation rooted in the Indian approach to the nuclear issue over the last two decades.

It is unrealistic to talk of a nuclear weapon-free world unless it is preceded by delegitimisation of the weapon. No weapon deemed legitimate will ever get eliminated. In the case of chemical weapons, the Geneva Protocol of 1925 outlawed their use, and signatories pledged no first use. It took another 68 years for the international community to reach an agreement to eliminate chemical weapons under verification. The four American statesmen talk of the ultimate goal of a world without nuclear weapons and describe it as the top of a very tall mountain and of the need to chart a course to higher ground where the mountain top becomes visible. Logically, that higher ground is delegitimisation of the weapon and an agreement on no first use. Unfortunately, NATO rejected the pleas of Germany and Canada and insisted on the right to first use of nuclear weapons — its legitimacy — in its declaration adopted on the 50th anniversary of the treaty in 1999. The four US statesmen have not dealt with this issue.

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