Stephen G. Rademaker

May 3 –– Stephen G. Rademaker, Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, spoke at the 3rd Session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2005 Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, held in New York City. Apart from their other concerns, he said, the signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) “are also deeply concerned about the dangers posed by nuclear weapons in South Asia. He said parties to the NPT should emphasize “on strict compliance with the NPT by all states, strong export controls, programs to combat nuclear terrorism, continued pressure on North Korea, and restraint in South Asia.”

Richard Boucher

Treatment of Indian nationals as slave labor

May 5 –– At the daily State Department briefing, Spokesperson Richard Boucher responded to questions regarding the Indian Foreign Ministry demanding an explanation about alleged treatment of Indian nationals as slave labor by United States contractors and military camps in Iraq. “…our Embassy has started to look into these reports and has advised the Ministry that it’s doing so. Obviously, we take all such reports seriously, and we’ll do our best to find out the facts of the matter… I think that’s what the (U.S.) Embassy would do is try to identify, first of all, who these people worked with and where they worked, and then use our folks on the other end of the equation to find those specifics of that circumstance, see what happened.”

John S. Wolf

Focus on nuclear proliferation in South Asia

May 4 –– The State Department’s John S. Wolf, Assistant Secretary for Non-Proliferation, spoke about nuclear proliferation in South Asia at the 3rd Session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2005 Review Conference on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, (NPT) held in New York.

On South Asia, Wolf said, “While we remain committed to universal Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons adherence, our focus in South Asia has been and remains on preventing act-ions that would undermine the global non-proliferation regime and regional stability –– be it through nuclear testing, deployment, nuclear use, or proliferation to other countries.

The United States has an active dialogue with both countries on these issues. But “India and Pakistan remain ineligible under U.S. law and policy for any significant assistance to their nuclear programs,” he asserted.

“We continue to call on India and Pakistan not to conduct nuclear tests, to end the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons to take steps to reduce regional tensions and to prevent the use of nuclear weapons,” he added.

“We are also urging Pakistan to continue to take the steps necessary to end the activities of the dangerous nuclear proliferation network spawned by A.Q. Khan.”

“It is up to Pakistan and numerous other countries in which this multinational network operated to take the necessary measures to shut down the network and to implement comprehensive measures to prevent any recurrence,” and Pakistan’s leaders had committed to doing that, he emphasized.