Nuclear terrorism remains potent threat for India: PM

Seoul, Mar.27 (ANI): Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said that nuclear terrorism will remain a 'potent threat' for India as long as there are terrorists seeking to gain access to nuclear material and technologies for malicious purposes.

Addressing the plenary session of the second nuclear security summit here, Singh said: "India is acutely conscious of this threat. Our resolution at the General Assembly on measures to deny terrorists access to weapons of mass destruction has been adopted by consensus since 2002."

New Delhi is extremely concerned about the "insider threat" to Pakistan's nuclear arsenal and there are also worries about the Nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists.

Singh also emphasised India's impeccable record of non-proliferation, saying: "India has never been a source of proliferation of sensitive technologies, and we are determined to further strengthen our export control systems, to keep them on par with the highest international standards".

He also pitched for India's membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and other regimes.

Singh said: "We have already adhered to the guidelines of the NSG and MTCR. As a like-minded country, with the ability and willingness to promote global non-proliferation objectives, we believe that the next logical step is India's membership of the four export control regimes."

Singh also told leaders in Seoul that India would follow best safety standards and provide full proof safety to its nuclear installations.

Singh said "We are also determined that our expanded nuclear power programme will follow the highest standards of nuclear safety and security, whose synergy is essential to restore public faith in nuclear energy, especially after the tragic events at Fukushima.".

India hosted a Sherpa meeting in January and also submitted a national progress report on actions it had taken to uypgrade the safety and security of its nuclear installations.

Singh also welcomed the early commencement of negotiations on a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT) at the Conference of Disarmament in Geneva.

He made it clear that the IAEA has a central role in strengthening the international global nuclear security architecture.

He announced India's plans to contribute a million dollars to the IAEA's nuclear security fund for the year 2012-13. By Naveen Kapoor (ANI)