Gujral may seek US help for UN seat

Prime Minister I K Gujral hinted that India would seek the United State's co-operation in pressing its claim for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.

Addressing a breakfast meeting at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, he said India's claim was based on ''strength and the global reach of its foreign policy -- a commitment to UN processes."

''We believe that we qualify on the basis of any global, objective and non discriminatory criterion,'' added Gujral.

"We look forward to working closely with the US on this critical aspect of the UN reforms, as we have in the past on various other facets of UN functioning,'' he said.

The prime minister did not raise this issue during his talks with President Bill Clinton on Monday. However, an official US spokesman revealed that the Clinton administration was very well aware of India's stand, and it would be discussed during the current session of the UN General Assembly.

Earlier, describing his meeting with Clinton as ''most constructive,'' Gujral said an ''active engagement'' between India and the US would ''serve the interest of peace, stability and democracy.''

The prime minister made a strong case for closer Indo-US ties in the areas of trade, exchange of technical know-how and above all, disarmament and containing proliferation.

Acknowledging the differences between India and the US on the nuclear issue, Gujral said that the change in US nuclear policy on the utility of nuclear weapons after the Cold War ''could provide our two countries an opportunity to work together in an area where an understanding had so far eluded.''

Gujral spelt out the reasons for India's decision against its association with the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, NPT and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, CTBT. ''These treaties in their present form do not address our security concerns in creating forward movement towards a nuclear free world, but, instead, tend to perpetuate a discriminatory nuclear order,'' the prime minister said.

India, he said, had exercised ''unique restraint'' by refusing to go in for excess weapons even after its ''peaceful nuclear experiment'' in 1974.

Gujral, however, said, India was surrounded by nuclear weapons and could not remain indifferent to the threat posed to its security. "We do not wish to be a nuclear weapon state, but, in the present circumstances, the need to keep our nuclear options open is unavoidable,'' he added.

The prime minister wanted its Indian friends in the US to understand that the country could not lower its guard as far as its security was concerned.

Turning to Delhi-Washington ties, he said there existed an objective basis on which Indo-US relations could enter a qualitatively new phase in the years to come.

He said this revitalised and strengthened relationship would be moulded by three ''distinctive realities." ''These are their common belief in democracy, open society and rule of law. New possibilities in the wake of India's economic reforms, and recognition of India's role as a factor for peace and stability in its region and beyond," specified Gujral. "I believe these factors, taken together, can give a new content and thrust to the friendship between our two countries.''

UNI