India ready for ban on nuclear weapons: with lots of Ifs and But

India is willing to negotiate a nuclear weapons convention leading to global non-discriminatory and verifiable elimination of nuclear

weapons, National securityAdvisor MK Narayanan has said here.

Addressing an international security conference in Munich on Friday, the NSA said: "If this conference succeeds in not merely addressing the issue of nuclear reductions but also devise pathways to their elimination, this might well be the transforming moment for the global community."

"Non-proliferation cannot be an end in itself, and has to be linked to effective nuclear disarmament. Nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation should be seen as mutually re-inforcing processes. Effective disarmament must enhance the security of all states and not merely that of a few," he said while speaking on "Non-Proliferation, Arms Control and Future of Nuclear Weapons; Is Zero Possible?"

"Even today, India is perhaps the only nuclear weapons state to express its readiness to negotiate a Nuclear Weapons Convention leading to global, non-discriminatory and verifiable elimination of nuclear weapons."

Recalling former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's stark warning when he presented his action plan to the UN general assembly in 1988, Narayanan said it was by far the most comprehensive initiative for complete elimination of all nuclear weapons in stages by 2010.