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Prime Minister expects consensus on CTBT signing by year end |
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July 1, 2000
NEW DELHI, (AP) - Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said Friday he expects to achieve a national consensus on India signing the global nuclear test ban treaty by the year's end, a news agency reported.
"We are preparing a national consensus in this matter and efforts will be continued in the coming months in this direction," United News of India quoted Vajpayee as telling reporters who accompanied him to Italy and Portugal this week. Vajpayee returned to India on Friday.
He was quoted as saying no deadline can be set, but he expected the consensus to be reached by the end of this year.
Vajpayee has held discussions on the issue with leaders of main political groups in the past two months.
Earlier this week, Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh said India's Parliament intends to discuss signing the CTBT when it reconvenes in July, according to a U.S. official reporting on his meeting in Warsaw, Poland with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
The United States has been pressing India and its archrival, Pakistan, to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) after both countries conducted nuclear tests in May 1998 and declared themselves nuclear powers.
Both countries say they would not carry out any further nuclear tests and would sign the CTBT after building a national consensus in its favor.
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