Nuclear Weapons
and Proliferation

      
Prescription for Indian Nuclear Fever: Approve the Test Ban Treaty
From Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers
Issue Brief, Vol. 2, No. 12, May 15, 1998
 
India's decision to conduct five underground nuclear weapon test explosions on May 11 & 13 has raised the temperature of the South Asian arms race to new and dangerous levels. The nuclear blasts have been met with justifiable condemnation and revulsion by the international community -- particularly from the 149 nations that have thus far signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). However, such condemnation must be backed up with concrete action to prevent further nuclear adventurism by India and its neighbor, Pakistan.
 
Energetic action by the White House and the Senate in the next weeks is vital to avoiding a volatile nuclear standoff in the region. The United States' imposition of sanctions on India as mandated by existing U.S. law will help to serve notice to India and others who might test that such activities cannot be tolerated. However, sanctions alone are an insufficient cure for the nuclear contagion that could spread throughout the region and elsewhere.
 
In order to enhance the credibility of such penalties for India's failure to abide by the still powerful norm against nuclear weapons testing, the United States Senate must press both India and Pakistan to refrain from further nuclear testing and simultaneously move quickly to sign and ratify the CTBT -- an essential tool to prevent further nuclear testing and weapons development in South Asia and other regional hot-spots.
 
The Test Ban Makes Sense Now More Than Ever: As President Clinton and other world leaders have maintained since the outset of this week's crisis, India and Pakistan should sign and ratify the CTBT without conditions. Having miscalculated the depth of the world community's disapproval for this week's nuclear blasts and the resolve of the United States to impose economic and financial sanctions, India's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders may look to rebuild its frayed relations with the world community. Now, while the heat is on the BJP, is the time to press India and Pakistan to join the CTBT regime and move to bring the treaty into force.
 
Cynics such as Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) argue that the U.S. should "... refuse to allow India to paper over its actions by signing the CTBT," even as he argues that India and Pakistan must refrain from nuclear testing. Such an approach is illogical and counterproductive to the goal of reducing the danger of a regional nuclear arms race between India, Pakistan, and China. As Ambassador Paul Warnke wrote in the May 14 edition of The New York Times, "To back off our own commitment to global adherence to the [test ban] treaty would only give aid and comfort to nuclear adventurism in South Asia."
 
Don't Let India and Pakistan Remain Outside the Non-Proliferation Regime: India and Pakistan have been outside the global nuclear non-proliferation and non-testing regime for decades. Now that India has launched a new and more dangerous phase of nuclear brinksmanship in the region, it is imperative that the U.S. uses every tool available to prevent further proliferation.
 
While the CTBT alone cannot block all routes to nuclear weaponization, its prohibition on all nuclear test explosions would make it far more difficult for nations seeking nuclear arms--like India, Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq-- to make reliable, advanced warheads, which are more easily deliverable by ballistic missiles. And, given that India's tests may tempt China to improve its arsenal, it is all the more significant that the CTBT would make it much harder for advanced nuclear weapon states, including Russia and China, to produce new and more threatening types of warheads.
 
The United States Must Set a Better Example
The United States will be hard-pressed to find a receptive audience for our condemnation of India (and Pakistan if decides to test) if we do not ourselves establish a higher standard. The U.S. must redouble its efforts to prevent and reduce nuclear dangers, beginning with the CTBT. Since the treaty was transmitted to the Senate for its advice and consent over seven months ago, the Senate has failed even to hold hearings in the Foreign Relations Committee, calling it a "low priority" and suggesting that the U.S. needs further nuclear testing. Senator Helms' "do as we say, not as we do" approach has no chance of convincing the defiant Indian government to stop testing, let alone join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a "non- nuclear" state, as he naively suggests as the alternative.
 
Under the CTBT's existing provisions, 44 nations including India, Pakistan, and the U.S. must ratify before the treaty can enter into force. If the Senate indefinitely shelves the CTBT, India will know that it is legally allowed to test nuclear weapons and make improvements to its arsenal. Positive action by the Senate on the CTBT would also reinforce America's ability to win broader support for sanctions against India and other proliferators -- an approach that some U.S. allies seem reluctant to pursue. Failure by the Senate to approve the CTBT-- a U.S.-led, internationally-supported initiative -- would undercut America's leadership status, with far-reaching implications. The time for action is now.
 

# # #

 
See the Coalition's CTBT Site for further information on India's nuclear tests and the CTBT. The Coalition is a non-partisan alliance of 17 of the nation's leading arms control and non-proliferation organizations working for a practical, step-by-step program to reduce nuclear dangers.
 
*The views and analysis expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect those of every member of the Coalition.
___________________________________
Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers at
Council for a Livable World Education Fund
110 Maryland Ave. NE #201
Washington DC 20002
p: (202)546-0795; fax: (202)546-5142
website: http://www.clw.org/pub/clw/coalition/
___________________________________

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