Prime Minister of India - Dr. Manmohan Singh

PM's Reply In Rajya Sabha Discussion On Foreign Visits Statement

Responding to a series of questions posed by Rajya Sabha Member Shri Yashwant Sinha with respect to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's suo moto statement in Parliament on his overseas visits, Dr Singh clarified that "there is no ambiguity in India's stand on the veto power of permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. "Let me remove any doubts, if there are any doubts" the PM said, and added: "There is no ambiguity in our stand. There is no confusion. At this point all permanent members of the UNSC have veto power. We do not believe there should be any discrimination in the permanent-membership status in the UNSC." The PM further added that there was "no clarity on what shape the Security Council reforms would eventually take. Let us not pre-judge the outcome. The UN is a complex organization and we have to see how this debate on UN reform moves forward." He said India was in touch with the G-4 Nations, Germany, Japan and Brazil, and that "it is not clear what the final outcome would be."

On the Government's stance on India's nuclear status also the PM said there was "no ambiguity". He repeated his earlier statement in Parliament that "India is a nuclear weapon State." He added that India remains committed to her civilisational approach to complete non-discriminatory universal nuclear disarmament."

To a question on the status of nuclear fuel supply from Russia, the PM said, "Russia has stated that it will honour all its contractual obligations."

To a question on the reference to terrorism in the joint press statement issued by the PM and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in New York, the PM said, "I do not share the perception of any dilution (as alleged by Mr Sinha) of India's stance as articulated in the January 6th, 2004 joint statement of President Musharraf and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. The PM said that he emphasized to President Musharraf the criticality of his fulfilling the reassurance of January 6, 2004, that any territory under Pakistan's control would not be used to support terrorism in any manner. The PM reiterated that "If this does not happen all other confidence building measures would have no meaning".

In response to a question on whether the PM discussed US arms supply to Pakistan with President Bush in New York, the PM said that he had not discussed this issue with the US President but the matter was taken up by the Government with US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during the latter's recent visit to India.