Obama brings CTBT back on agenda

India has so far refused to sign the CTBT that seeks to ban all sorts of nuclear testing,arguing that the treaty would ensure a perpetual division of the world in nuclear haves and have-nots. India’s stand has been that the treaty would have no meaning if it is not backed by complete disarmament by all the nuclear weapon countries.

The US under the previous Democratic regime of Bill Clinton was one of the first countries that signed the treaty,but its Senate had refused to ratify it. By appointing Steinberg and Holdren,both strong advocates of the CTBT,to his core team,Obama has sent the message that he would try to complete the unfinished task of the Clinton administration. However,experts are of the opinion that India should not have any reason to worry on account of a renewed initiative on the CTBT.

“In the current situation,when we have concluded the civil nuclear cooperation agreement,the CTBT should not be a cause for concern. If everybody else in the world adheres to it,so can we. If a country tries to break away from it,it automatically gives us the right to break free,” said strategic analyst K Subrahmanyam.

James B Steinberg: A former deputy National Security Advisor under Bill Clinton,Steinberg has been a close aide of the former President’s wife and Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton. He has been a strong votary of nuclear disarmament and has suggested the US take the lead in destroying its weapons. In a Newsweek article in January 2008,he wrote: “If we want Iran and North Korea to give them (nuclear weapons) up and for China and Russia to limit their arsenals and prevent proliferation,we must take steps of our own: canceling new weapons programmes,ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and mounting a massive global campaign to secure loose nukes and nuclear material.”

Then in a November 2007 speech,while referring to the CTBT and Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty,he said: “We must find ways to bring India and Pakistan into these commitments to reduce the salience of nuclear weapons”.

Dr John Holdren: A scientist of repute,Holdren has been working in the field of arms control and security of nuclear weapons,sustainable development and global energy resources. He worked with Bill Clinton as a member of the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology. He has been a very active member of the Pugwash Conference and was chosen by his colleagues to give the acceptance speech when the organisation shared the Nobel Prize in 1995. In that speech,he said: “The idea that a few nations are entitled to retain nuclear weapons for ‘deterrent’ purposes indefinitely while all other nations are expected to refrain from acquiring this ostensible benefit,is untenable in the long run — every statement or action by a nuclear-weapon state reinforcing the idea that nuclear weapons might have military utility will provoke interest on the part of other countries in acquiring them; and states that are thus provoked,but lack the means to acquire nuclear weapons are likely to try to acquire instead the ‘poor man’s’ weapons of mass destruction — chemical and biological weapons.”

Antony Blinken: The former staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is one of the closest advisors of Vice-President- elect Joe Biden. Authoring a July 2008 report on 21st century National Security Strategy,along with Steinberg and others,Blinken recommended that the next President must reaffirm that America seeks a world free of nuclear weapons. “In addition,the United States should ratify the CTBT at the earliest practical opportunity and propose to negotiate a worldwide,verifiable ban on the production of fissile material for weapon purposes,” the report said.