United Nations: India has strongly criticised the final draft of a global Arms Trade Treaty as “flawed” and tilted against weapons-importing countries even as Iran, North Korea and Syria have blocked adoption of the UN treaty aimed to regulate the $70bn conventional arms trade around the world.
Addressing the closing plenary of the UN Conference on ATT, Ambassador Sujata Mehta said India “cannot accept that the treaty be used as an instrument in the hands of exporting states to take unilateral force majeure measures against importing states parties without consequences”.
She said relevant provisions in the final draft do not meet India’s requirements. “There is a fundamental imbalance in the text which is flawed as the weight of obligations is tilted against importing states,” said Mehta, India’s permanent representative to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.
Iran, North Korea and Syria have blocked adoption of the ATT saying it fails to ban sales of weapons to groups that commit “acts of aggression”.
The text of the first international treaty on arms trade needs support from all 193 UN member states for its approval.
Mehta said India was to undertake a thorough assessment of the ATT “from the perspective of our defence, security and foreign policy interests”.
She also stressed that the delegation’s participation in the session “does not in any way prejudice our position on the substantive aspects of the Treaty and should not be construed in any way as our endorsement”.
IANS
