Abstract
India has been dealing with terrorism for several decades, and is therefore constructively involved in all genuine exercises for countering the menace. As terror groups are expected to use weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), India fully supports the legal and other operational measures and mechanisms adopted by multilateral and international organisations to mitigate the risk of WMD terrorism. A resolution has been steered in the United Nations General Assembly to gain international support for fighting WMD terrorism. Of all the WMDs, weapons using nuclear and radiological materials are the most devastating.
India has been supportive of the various international and national endeavours to prevent and counter this threat. India is a supporter of the nuclear summit process, which began with the 2010 Washington summit and continued with the 2012 Seoul summit. There will be at least two more summits: at The Hague in 2014 and in the US in 2016. India has been an active participant in the summit process and its preparatory meetings—known as sherpa meetings—from the very beginning. In January 2012, India hosted the sherpa meeting held prior to the Seoul 2012 Nuclear Security Summit (NSS). It has supported the international consensus that terrorism is a major international threat. The Indian prime minister spoke at both summits, and spelt out the country’s plan and position on major nuclear security issues.
The imperatives of protecting its people against nuclear terrorism and developing a nuclear energy programme of its own have compelled India to engage with nuclear security issues. This explains why the Indian prime minister has attended both summits. At the Seoul summit, India presented a report on its nuclear security accomplishments and made it clear that it favours the continuance of the summit process, until such time that it deviates from its path.
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